"American society is a sort of flat, fresh-water pond which absorbs silently, without reaction, anything which is thrown into it."

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More quotes from: Henry B. Adams

• "A friend in power is a friend lost. "
• "A teacher affects eternity he can never tell, where his influence stops. "
• "Absolute liberty is absence of restraint; responsibility is restraint; therefore, the ideally free individual is ..."
• "Accident counts for as much in companionship as in marriage. "
• "Accident counts for much in companionship as in marriage. "
• "All experience is an arch, to build upon. "
• "As for America, it is the ideal fruit of all your youthful hopes and reforms. ..."
• "At best, the renewal of broken relations is a nervous matter. "
• "Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit. "
• "Everyone carries his own inch rule of taste, and amuse himself by applying it, triumphantly, ..."
• "Friends are born, not made. "
• "He too serves a certain purpose who only stands and cheers. "
• "In plain words, Chaos was the law of nature Order was the dream of man. "
• "Intimates are predestined. "
• "It is always good men who do the most harm in the world. "
• "It is impossible to underrate human intelligence - beginning with one's own. "
• "Knowledge of human nature is the beginning and end of political education. "
• "Morality is a private and costly luxury. "
• "No man likes to have his intelligence or good faith questioned, especially if he has ..."
• "No man means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for ..."
• "No man, however strong, can serve ten years as schoolmaster, priest, or Senator, and remain ..."

• "Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the ..."
• "One friend in a lifetime is much, two are many, three are hardly possible. Friendship ..."
• "Only on the edge of the grave can man conclude anything. "
• "Philosophy: Unintelligible answers to insoluble problems. "
• "Politics are a very unsatisfactory game. "
• "Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds. "
• "Power is poison. Its effect on Presidents had always been tragic. "
• "Power when wielded by abnormal energy is the most serious of facts. "
• "Practical politics consists in ignoring facts. "
• "Simplicity is the most deceitful mistress that ever betrayed man. "
• "Susceptibility to the highest forces is the highest genius. "
• "The American President resembles the commander of a ship at sea. He must have a ..."
• "The difference is slight, to the influence of an author, whether he is read by ..."
• "The effect of power and publicity on all men is the aggravation of self, a ..."
• "The press is the hired agent of a monied system, and set up for no ..."
• "The progress of Evolution from President Washington to President Grant was alone evidence enough to ..."
• "The progress of evolution from President Washington to President Grant was alone evidence to upset ..."
• "The proper study of mankind is woman. "
• "The woman who is known only through a man is known wrong. "
• "There is no such thing as an underestimate of average intelligence. "

• "They know enough who know how to learn. "
• "Unintelligible answers to insoluble problems. "
• "We combat obstacles in order to get repose, and when got, the repose is insupportable. "
• "What one knows is, in youth, of little moment; they know enough who know how ..."
• "Women have, commonly, a very positive moral sense; that which they will, is right; that ..."
• "You can't use tact with a Congressman! A Congressman is a hog! You must take ..."
• "Young men have a passion for regarding their elders as senile. "