“These are times in which genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life or in the repose of a pacific station that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised and animated by scenes that engage the heart then these qualities which would otherwise lay dormant wake into life and form the character of the hero and the statesman.”

..from a letter to John Quincy Adams from his mother. At the time he was a young boy on his 2nd trip to Europe with his father.

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