At age sixteen, Adams entered Harvard College in 1751, studying under Joseph Mayhew. As an adult, Adams was a keen scholar, studying the works of ancient writers such as Thucydides, Plato, Cicero, and Tacitus in their original languages. Though his father expected him to be a minister, after his 1755 graduation with an A.B. degree, he taught school temporarily in Worcester, while pondering his permanent vocation. In the next four years, he began to seek prestige, craving 'Honour or Reputation' and 'more defference from  fellows', and was determined to be 'a great Man.' He decided to become a lawyer to further those ends, writing his father that he found among lawyers 'noble and gallant achievements' but, among the clergy, the 'pretended sanctity of some absolute dunces.' His aspirations conflicted with his Puritanism, though, prompting reservations about his self-described 'trumpery' and failure to share the 'happiness of  fellow men.'