Great necessities call out great virtues.

“Great necessities call out great virtues.” — Abigail Adams

In these luminous words, Abigail Adams, the wise and courageous wife of America’s second president, speaks to one of the eternal laws of the human soul — that crisis reveals character, and that within the fire of necessity, the hidden gold of virtue is refined. She does not say that great times create virtue, but that they call it forth, as if courage, patience, and honor were seeds already planted in the heart, waiting for the storm to awaken them. Her words are both observation and exhortation — a truth she lived through war, uncertainty, and sacrifice, and a message she left as an inheritance to all who face the trials of history.

The origin of this quote lies in a letter Abigail wrote to her husband, John Adams, during the dark days of the American Revolution. While he served far from home, she managed their household and cared for their children, even as the world around her burned with unrest and danger. Yet rather than lament her burden, she found in those hardships a kind of grace — the discovery that necessity, though cruel, can summon the noblest parts of the human spirit. “Great necessities call out great virtues,” she wrote, meaning that in moments when comfort is stripped away, we find the courage, wisdom, and endurance we never knew we possessed.

This truth is as old as humanity itself. When Homer’s Odysseus was cast into the seas and stripped of everything but his will, it was necessity that made him cunning, patient, and strong. When Queen Esther faced the peril of her people, it was necessity that called forth her courage to stand before the king. When Nelson Mandela languished in prison for twenty-seven years, it was necessity that turned his suffering into a wellspring of forgiveness and moral might. Such moments, when the world demands all that is within us, reveal the measure of the soul. Adversity does not diminish greatness — it calls it into being.

Abigail Adams understood this from her own life. She lived in an age when women’s voices were seldom heard in politics or philosophy, yet her letters stand today as pillars of wisdom and resilience. She tended her farm, raised her children, and wrote words that would help shape a nation — all while separated from her husband for long and painful years. Her virtue was not idle idealism, but virtue in motion, born of necessity. In her hands, hardship became strength, solitude became reflection, and longing became love’s endurance. She teaches us that greatness is not forged in ease, but in the furnace of responsibility and trial.

And what are these great virtues she speaks of? They are the timeless qualities that rise only when the soul is pressed: courage in the face of fear, patience in the shadow of waiting, hope amid despair, compassion in suffering, and faith when logic fails. When life is easy, these virtues lie dormant, like seeds buried deep in the soil. But when the winds of necessity blow, when survival or honor demands it, they awaken — and the heart grows in stature to meet the moment. Thus, necessity, though feared, is a teacher more powerful than comfort; it shapes the soul into something capable of greatness.

This principle can be seen across every generation. In the darkest hours of history — wars, disasters, and struggles for justice — ordinary people have risen to extraordinary heights. The nurse who works through plague, the soldier who defends the helpless, the reformer who speaks truth despite persecution — all answer the call of necessity with virtue made visible. It is in such moments that humanity remembers its nobility. For as long as the world produces hardship, it will also produce heroes.

So, O seeker of wisdom, take this teaching into your heart: do not flee from necessity, but rise to meet it. When life presses upon you with burdens too heavy to bear, do not despair — for within you lies the virtue that can bear them. The universe calls forth greatness not through comfort, but through challenge. When fear whispers that you cannot endure, answer it with courage. When weariness tempts you to surrender, stand firm in purpose. For in the moments when all seems lost, your virtues are waiting to be born.

And remember the voice of Abigail Adams — steadfast amid the storms of her age — reminding us that every trial, every necessity, is a summons to become more than we were. The world will always have its hardships, but those who meet them with faith and fortitude turn suffering into glory. For it is in the fire of necessity that the human spirit shines brightest, and it is through great necessities that we learn to embody great virtues.