“In a world of change, the learners shall inherit the earth, while the learned shall find themselves perfectly suited for a world that no longer exists.”
John Adams (1735-1826), President and Patriot, gave the following account of his ancestry:
“One of the foreign Ambassadors said to me, You have been often in England. — Never but once in November and December 1783. You have Relations in England no doubt. — None at all. — None how can that be? You are of English Extraction? — Neither my Father or Mother, Grandfather or Grandmother, Great Grandfather or Great Grandmother nor any other Relation that I know of or care a farthing for have been in England these 150 Years. So that you see, I have not one drop of Blood in my Veins, but what is American. — Ay We have seen says he proofs enough of that. This flattered me no doubt, and I was vain enough to be pleased with it.”
Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth, Foul’d by these rebel powers that thee array, Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth, Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?
Why so large cost, having so short a lease, Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend? Shall worms, inheritors of this excess, Eat up thy charge? Is this thy body’s end?
Then soul, live thou upon thy servant’s loss, And let that pine to aggravate thy store; Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross; Within be fed, without be rich no more:
So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men, And Death once dead, there’s no more dying then.”
