Abigail Adams is willing to risk her son's exposure to danger in Europe so that he can be at his fathers side, at an age where he can "most benefit from his father's example and precepts.

— Paul C. Nagel

Adams looks forward to teaching his granddaughters about planting trees, noting that they already show inclination toward this and need only be encouraged in the naturalist pursuits he has found so healthy.

— Paul C. Nagel

Adams met with a convention on keeping the Sabbath and found the atmosphere surprisingly similar to that in Congress. Legalistic disputes so abounded that he found it difficult to keep order.

— Paul C. Nagel

Adams was in a hurry and ordered his horse-drawn carriage to wait for him in front of his house. The horses were spooked before he got in the carriage, and the carriage was destroyed in an accident. Pondering what could have happened to him, Adams retreated to Psalm 20s injunctions against trusting in chariots and horses.

— Paul C. Nagel

Ambition distorts even memory itself. John Quincy Adams

— Paul C. Nagel

Amusement and annoyance are, perhaps, both forms of denial.

— Paul C. Nagel

Because he was suffering doubts about himself and his future, Adams may have felt comfort demeaning the behavior and the character of women.

— Paul C. Nagel

Foolish defiance was his lifelong response to being ill.

— Paul C. Nagel

He had to pause for his usual misgivings.

— Paul C. Nagel

He must become an apprentice to ordinary life.

— Paul C. Nagel