If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice, or representation.
Abigail AdamsRead
We have too many high-sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.
Interpretation
Words alone are insufficient without corresponding actions.
Abigail Adams' quote highlights the disconnect often found between what people say and what they actually do. It emphasizes the importance of taking meaningful action rather than merely using grandiose language, pointing out that true integrity and effectiveness lie in aligning our words with our deeds.
In practice
In a motivational speech about integrity in leadership.
If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice, or representation.
Great difficulties may be surmounted by patience and perseverance.
If we do not lay out ourselves in the service of mankind whom should we serve?
I begin to think, that a calm is not desirable in any situation in life. Man was made for action and for bustle too, I believe.
The habits of a vigorous mind are born in contending with difficulties.
Well, knowledge is a fine thing, and mother Eve thought so; but she smarted so severely for hers, that most of her daughters have been afraid of it since.
Where nothing in a person's earlier years lends itself to an old age devoted to continuing intellectual and physical pursuits, a late-life interest in Tolstoy or even crossword puzzles is unlikely to appear, no matter the urging by well-intentioned social workers or people like me who write books about it.
People with intelligence must use their intelligence, people with eyes must use their eyes, people with the capacity to love have the impulse to love and the need to love in order to feel healthy. Capacities clamor to be used, and cease their clamor only when they are used sufficiently. That is to say, capacities are needs, and therefore are intrinsic values as well.
Interviewer: What would you say to a woman in this country who assumes she is no longer oppressed, who believes women's liberation has been achieved? el Saadawi: Well I would think she is blind. Like many people who are blind to gender problems, to class problems, to international problems. She's blind to what's happening to her.
every pleasure's got an edge of pain, pay your ticket and don't complain
Mother, who has an absolute belief that it is not the cards that one is dealt in life, it is how one plays them, is, by far, the highest card I was dealt.
The librarians were mysterious. It was said they could tell what book you needed just by looking at you, and they could take your voice away with a word.
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