A Quote from a Quote and a Line from a Book I am reading

I didn't want to forget to write about this. I am reading this book, a fascinating book on the founding fathers and the relationships among them. It is a more personable look at the era and their, at times radical, differences.

The factual and historical aside, the book is insightful with respect to the quotes of personal correspondence and the beauty of the English language when properly used to express. In the chapter on "The Collaborators" where the author describes the Adams-Jefferson relationship and what brings about their "great collaboration" and then their ensuing "collaboration" following certain differences, the author makes reference to several communiqués between John Adams and his wife, Abigail Adams.

One of those letters is a discussion between John and Abigail regarding his probabilities of becoming the President of the United States and whether she would move to the seat of government or remain in Philadelphia. She responds ultimately along the lines that she will go wherever providence dictates as follows: "My Ambition leads me not to be first in Rome" but to "reign in the heart of my husband. That is my throne and there I aspire to be absolute."

I want to write like that. More importantly, I would like to reign in the heart of that special someone and have him reign in mine.

A.B.