Author Profile
Henry Adams
1838 – 1918 • American • Historian
54
Total Quotes
Collected Meditations
Showing 54 quotesThank God, I never was cheerful. I come from the happy stock of the Mathers, who, as you remember, passed sweet mornings reflecting on the goodness of God and the damnation of infants.— Henry Adams
We combat obstacles in order to get repose, and when got, the repose is insupportable.— Henry Adams
The difference is slight, to the influence of an author, whether he is read by five hundred readers, or by five hundred thousand; if he can select the five hundred, he reaches the five hundred thousand.— Henry Adams
I have written too much history to have faith in it; and if anyone thinks I'm wrong, I am inclined to agree with him.— Henry Adams
American society is a sort of flat, fresh-water pond which absorbs silently, without reaction, anything which is thrown into it.— Henry Adams
No man, however strong, can serve ten years as schoolmaster, priest, or Senator, and remain fit for anything else.— Henry Adams
Absolute liberty is absence of restraint; responsibility is restraint; therefore, the ideally free individual is responsible to himself.— Henry Adams