"We have too many high-sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them"
About this Quote
Abigail Adams is taking a pin to the inflated rhetoric of a young republic that loved to congratulate itself in print. “High-sounding words” isn’t just a complaint about eloquence; it’s an indictment of a political culture that could draft soaring declarations while leaving the messy work of justice, governance, and everyday dignity unfinished. The line lands because it refuses to be dazzled by language. It treats rhetoric as a kind of moral IOU: if you can’t pay it back with action, it’s not inspiration, it’s vanity.
The subtext is sharper than it looks. Adams lived close enough to power to hear the speeches, read the letters, and watch the compromises. Her position as First Lady (and as a fiercely intelligent correspondent with John Adams) made her both insider and excluded party: consulted privately, denied formally. That tension feeds the quote’s impatience. It’s a warning from someone who understands that noble phrasing can become a substitute for political courage, especially when the costs of inaction fall on people without seats at the table.
Context matters: post-revolutionary America was building institutions and myths at the same time. The new nation’s credibility depended on living up to its own vocabulary of liberty and virtue. Adams is essentially saying: stop auditioning for history; start governing like your words are binding. The sentence is compact, almost domestic in its practicality, which is part of its bite. It sounds like common sense, and that’s the trap: common sense is what hypocrisy fears most.
The subtext is sharper than it looks. Adams lived close enough to power to hear the speeches, read the letters, and watch the compromises. Her position as First Lady (and as a fiercely intelligent correspondent with John Adams) made her both insider and excluded party: consulted privately, denied formally. That tension feeds the quote’s impatience. It’s a warning from someone who understands that noble phrasing can become a substitute for political courage, especially when the costs of inaction fall on people without seats at the table.
Context matters: post-revolutionary America was building institutions and myths at the same time. The new nation’s credibility depended on living up to its own vocabulary of liberty and virtue. Adams is essentially saying: stop auditioning for history; start governing like your words are binding. The sentence is compact, almost domestic in its practicality, which is part of its bite. It sounds like common sense, and that’s the trap: common sense is what hypocrisy fears most.
Quote Details
| Topic | Honesty & Integrity |
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