At best, the renewal of broken relations is a nervous matter.
- Henry Adams
Best, Broken, Nervous, Renewal
Simplicity is the most deceitful mistress that ever betrayed man.
- Henry Adams
Most, Ever, Betrayed, Mistress
The Indian Summer of life should be a little sunny and a little sad, like the season, and infinite in wealth and depth of tone, but never hustled.
- Henry Adams
Life, Wealth, Tone, Depth
Young men have a passion for regarding their elders as senile.
- Henry Adams
Men, Young, Senile, Elders
Philosophy: Unintelligible answers to insoluble problems.
- Henry Adams
Philosophy, Answers, Unintelligible
The progress of evolution from President Washington to President Grant was alone evidence to upset Darwin.
- Henry Adams
Alone, Upset, Evidence, Grant
Thank 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
Happy, Come, Infants, Cheerful
No man, however strong, can serve ten years as schoolmaster, priest, or Senator, and remain fit for anything else.
- Henry Adams
Strong, However, Remain, Schoolmaster
One friend in a lifetime is much, two are many, three are hardly possible. Friendship needs a certain parallelism of life, a community of thought, a rivalry of aim.
- Henry Adams
Friendship, Thought, Needs, Hardly
Some day science may have the existence of mankind in power, and the human race can commit suicide by blowing up the world.
- Henry Adams
Mankind, Some, May, Blowing
I tell you the solemn truth, that the doctrine of the Trinity is not so difficult to accept for a working proposition as any one of the axioms of physics.
- Henry Adams
Tell, Difficult, Any, Solemn
The effect of power and publicity on all men is the aggravation of self, a sort of tumor that ends by killing the victim's sympathies.
- Henry Adams
Sort, Sympathies, Tumor, Aggravation
Every man who has at last succeeded, after long effort, in calling up the divinity which lies hidden in a woman's heart, is startled to find that he must obey the God he summoned.
- Henry Adams
Woman, Which, Divinity, Startled
Everyone carries his own inch rule of taste, and amuses himself by applying it, triumphantly, wherever he travels.
- Henry Adams
Travel, Everyone, Applying, Wherever
The proper study of mankind is woman.
- Henry Adams
Woman, Mankind, Study, Proper Study
It is impossible to underrate human intelligence - beginning with one's own.
- Henry Adams
Beginning, Impossible, Own, Human Intelligence
The press is the hired agent of a monied system, and set up for no other purpose than to tell lies where their interests are involved. One can trust nobody and nothing.
- Henry Adams
Trust, Other, Agent, Hired
Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man.
- Henry Adams
Nature, Law, Chaos, Order
Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.
- Henry Adams
History, Chaos, Habit, Order
The American President resembles the commander of a ship at sea. He must have a helm to grasp, a course to steer, a port to seek.
- Henry Adams
Ship, American, Resembles, Steer
Morality is a private and costly luxury.
- Henry Adams
Luxury, Morality, Private, Costly
I am an anarchist in politics and an impressionist in art as well as a symbolist in literature. Not that I understand what these terms mean, but I take them to be all merely synonyms of pessimist.
- Henry Adams
Art, Politics, Understand, Impressionist
Absolute liberty is absence of restraint; responsibility is restraint; therefore, the ideally free individual is responsible to himself.
- Henry Adams
Liberty, Himself, Individual, Restraint
Power is poison. Its effect on Presidents had always been tragic.
- Henry Adams
Poison, Always, Been, Tragic
It is always good men who do the most harm in the world.
- Henry Adams
World, Always, Most, Good Men
Knowledge of human nature is the beginning and end of political education.
- Henry Adams
Nature, Education, Beginning, Human Nature
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
Hundred, Slight, Read, Readers
American society is a sort of flat, fresh-water pond which absorbs silently, without reaction, anything which is thrown into it.
- Henry Adams
Reaction, Pond, Which, Absorb
Accident counts for as much in companionship as in marriage.
- Henry Adams
Marriage, Counts, Accident
Politics, as a practise, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.
- Henry Adams
Politics, Always, Been, Practise
All experience is an arch, to build upon.
- Henry Adams
Experience, Build, Arch
Susceptibility to the highest forces is the highest genius.
- Henry Adams
Genius, Highest, Forces
Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts.
- Henry Adams
Education, Science, Amount, Accumulate
We combat obstacles in order to get repose, and when got, the repose is insupportable.
- Henry Adams
Obstacles, Get, Combat, Repose
Man is an imperceptible atom always trying to become one with God.
- Henry Adams
Man, Trying, Always, Become
Politics... have always been the systematic organization of hatreds.
- Henry Adams
Politics, Always, Been, Systematic
He too serves a certain purpose who only stands and cheers.
- Henry Adams
Politics, Stands, Too, Certain
No man means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous.
- Henry Adams
Thought, Very, Means, Few
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
History, Faith, Inclined, Thinks
No man likes to have his intelligence or good faith questioned, especially if he has doubts about it himself.
- Henry Adams
Doubts, About, Questioned, Likes
Power when wielded by abnormal energy is the most serious of facts.
- Henry Adams
Power, Most, Abnormal, Serious
Practical politics consists in ignoring facts.
- Henry Adams
Politics, Practical, Facts
A man must now swallow more belief than he can digest.
- Henry Adams
Now, More, Swallow, Digest
A friend in power is a friend lost.
- Henry Adams
Friendship, Power, Lost, Friend
The woman who is known only through a man is known wrong.
- Henry Adams
Woman, Through, Only, Known
A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.
- Henry Adams
Teacher, Never, Eternity, Affects
There is no such thing as an underestimate of average intelligence.
- Henry Adams
Average, Thing, Underestimate
Only on the edge of the grave can man conclude anything.
- Henry Adams
Only, Grave, Conclude, Edge
No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous.
- Henry Adams
Thought, Very, Means, Slippery
They know enough who know how to learn.
- Henry Adams
Learn, Know, How, Enough
Friends are born, not made.
- Henry Adams
Friendship, Born, Made, Friends
No man should be in politics unless he would honestly rather not be there.
- Henry Adams
Politics, Would, Honestly, Unless
Intimates are predestined.
- Henry Adams
Predestined
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