Charles Francis Adams Sr.

thumb|right|In this country … men seem to live for action as long as they can and sink into apathy when they retire. 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 Peter Yapp (ed.) The Travellers' Dictionary of Quotation: Who Said What, About Where? (1983), 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); Correspondence concerning Claims against Great Britain, vol. 2 (Washington, D.C., 1870), p. 365 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. External links Appleton's Biography edited by Stanley L. Klos Charles Francis Adams, Sr. at findagrave.com Category:Academics from the United States Category:Lawyers from the United States Category:Non-fiction authors from the United States Category:Editors from the United States Category:United States Ambassadors to Great Britain and the United Kingdom Category:1807 births Category:1886 deaths Category:Massachusetts Free Soilers Category:Politicians from Boston Charles Francis Adams, Sr.