ABIGAIL ADAMS, in a cautionary letter to her genius future-president son, John Quincy Adams, 1786, during his first semester at Harvard. Abigail had heard through the grapevine that her son could be “a little too decisive and tenacious” in his opinions. She shot off the following letter:
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.
