“Foolish defiance was his lifelong response to being ill.”

“Since chess was such a painful test of intellect, it affected his emotions too much to be sport.”

“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.”

“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.”

“The author points out that, with life in provincial Washington difficult for those not of independent means, Adams and his wife undervalued the social connections that others found vital. They often made an impression as distant and prideful.”

“The world shall retire from me before I shall retire from the world. John Quincy Adams”

“The life-changing encounters that John Quincy Adams made as an adolescent on his own in Stockholm began with a friendship he struck up at a bookstore.”

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

“It is the doom of the Christian church to be always distracted with controversy. John Quincy Adams”

“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 20's injunctions against trusting in chariots and horses.”

“He had to pause for his usual misgivings.”