great necessities call out great virtues

It is not in the still calm of life, or 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 those qualities which would otherways lay dormant, wake into Life, and form the Character of the Hero and the Statesman.

Abigail Adams

John Adams by David McCullough. 2001. Simon & Schuster. p.226