Charles Francis Adams, Sr.

Charles Francis Adams (18 August 1807 – 21 November 1886) was an American lawyer, politician, diplomat and writer; the son of President John Quincy Adams and Louisa Catherine Johnson and the grandson of President John Adams and Abigail Adams.

Quotes

 * In this country … men seem to live for action as long as they can and sink into apathy when they retire.
 * Diary entry (15 April 1836), as quoted in The Travellers' Dictionary of Quotation : Who Said What, About Where? (1983) by Peter Yapp, p. 862.


 * It would be superfluous in me to point out to your Lordship that this is war.
 * Dispatch to John Russell at a period of diplomatic tensions between the US and Britain during the US Civil War (5 September 1863); more information on the significance of this statement is available at "The American Question Abroad in the Civil War"


 * More than all, and above all, Washington was master of himself. If there be one quality more than another in his character which may exercise a useful control over the men of the present hour, it is the total disregard of self when in the most elevated positions for influence and example.
 * As quoted in Washington's Birthday : Its History, Observance, Spirit, and Significance as Related in Prose and Verse (1918) by Robert Haven Schauffler, p. 143.