I went in the evening to see Mrs. Dana; there was a large Company there, and I escaped as soon as I could. I intended to make a number of Sage Reflections, this evening, but I feel so ill-natured, that I will not attempt it.
“8th.,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/03-02-02-0001-0008-0008. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Diary of John Quincy Adams, vol. 2, March 1786 – December 1788, ed. Robert Taylor J and Marc Friedlaender. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981, p. 92.]