John Adams, second US President, was concerned for his son, John Quincy Adams (future sixth US President), as JQ was negotiating the treaty to end the War of 1812 with Britain:
“‘The people of the United States are the most conceited people that ever existed on this globe,‘ he remarked in 1816, ‘the most proud, vain, ambitious, suspicious, jealous... and I am as guilty as any of them. Have a care of them!‘”
“But Adams didn‘t just read books. He battled them. The casual presumption that there‘s some kind of rough correlation between the books in the library of any prominent historical figure & the person‘s cast of mind would encounter catastrophe with Adams, because he tended to buy & read books with which he profoundly disagreed. Then, as he read, he recorded in the margins & at the bottom of the pages his usually hostile opinions of...the authors.”
I‘m reading this book about Founding Father & second US President, John Adams.
Adams was a supremely intelligent, thoughtful man, who, like all of us, had character flaws. Anyone who followed Washington was bound to struggle in the shadow of his heroism.
However, I think Adams‘s personality & belief that to be virtuous meant to always face isolation & rejection became self-fulfilling.
I‘m challenged to not let my own flaws dictate my story.
I repeated my election result day tradition and loaded up on books at my 5 for Q9 charity shop.
Sorry not sorry. ?
Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams | 
