By the time [John Adams] came to write his Defence of the Constitutions of the United States in 1787 he had as dark a view of the American character as that of any critic in our history.
My aim in life is to make pictures and drawings, as many and as well as I can; then, at the end of my life. . . looking back with love and tender regret, and thinking, 'Oh, the pictures I might have made!'