The Lost Founding Father Quotes

“Absolutely crucial, however, for Adams from his perspective was that he had been called to each of these positions. He repeated time and time again that he had never angled or campaigned or had anyone else intervene on his behalf for any of them. He did not strive; he was chosen. For his own sense of himself, he had to believe that only his merit and virtue brought him office. He did acknowledge his ambition, but he could never consciously permit that aspiration to result in an overt effort to fulfill it.”
― William J. Cooper Jr., The Lost Founding Father: John Quincy Adams and the Transformation of American Politics