Mother's Tough Love: Abigail Adams' Letter to John Quincy Adams
A Loving and Firmly Worded Note
Mother's Tough Love
While attending his first semester at Harvard in 1786, soon-to-be US forefather John Quincy Adams received a letter of admonishment from his loving mother, Abigail Adams. She wrote the note in response to rumors that her son's demeanor could be "a little too decisive and tenacious".
In her letter Mrs. Adams speaks with a gently mellifluous vernacular befitting her times, yet concludes with words so admirably terse - she raps her son's knuckles to rein him in.
A mother's tough love...
Abagail Adams' Note to John Quincy Adams
"If you are conscious to yourself that you possess more knowledge upon some subjects than others of your standing, reflect that you have had greater opportunities of seeing the world, and obtaining a knowledge of mankind than any of your contemporaries. That you have never wanted a book but it has been supplied to you, that your whole time has been spent in the company of men of literature and science. How unpardonable would it have been in you to have been a blockhead."
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