History is a tangled skein that one may take up at any point, and break when one has unravelled enough. Henry Adams More Quotes by Henry Adams More Quotes From Henry Adams We combat obstacles in order to get repose, and when got, the repose is insupportable. Henry Adams lazinessslothorder Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts. Henry Adams ignoranceteachingeducation It is impossible to underrate human intelligence - beginning with one's own. Henry Adams intelligencehumansimpossible The habit of expression leads to the search for something to express. Something remains as a residuum of the commonplace itself, if one strikes out every commonplace in the expression. Henry Adams strikeshabitexpression The whole fabric of society will go to wrack if we really lay hands of reform on our rotten institutions. From top to bottom the whole system is a fraud, all of us know it, laborers and capitalists alike, and all of us are consenting parties to it. Henry Adams reformpartyhands Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man. Henry Adams naturedreammen People here are quite struck aback at Sunday's news of the capture of New Orleans. It took them three days to make up their minds to believe it. The division of American had become an idea so fixed that they had about shut out all the avenues to the reception of any other. Henry Adams sundaywarbelieve The sensation of seeing extremely fine women, with superb forms, perfectly unconscious of undress, and yet evidently aware of their beauty and dignity, is worth a week's seasickness to experience... [to me] the effect [of a Siva dance] was that of a dozen Rembrandts intensified into the most glowing beauty of life and motion. Henry Adams glowingwomenbeauty Man had in the beginning no power of analysis or synthesis approaching that of the spider, or even of the honey-bee; he had acute sensibility to the higher forces. Fire taught him secrets that no other animal could learn; running water probably taught him even more, especially in his first lessons of mechanics; the animals helped to educate him, trusting themselves into his hands merely for the sake of their food, and carrying his burdens or supplying his clothing; the grasses and grains were academies of study. Henry Adams runninganimalmen For reasons which many persons thought ridiculous, Mrs. Lightfoot Lee decided to pass the winter in Washington. Henry Adams ridiculouswinterbook I think that Lee should have been hanged. It was all the worse that he was a good man and a fine character and acted conscientiously... It's always the good men who do the most harm in the world. Henry Adams charactermenwar The first serious consciousness of Nature's gesture - her attitude towards life-took form then as a phantasm, a nightmare, all insanity of force. For the first time, the stage-scenery of the senses collapsed; the human mind felt itself stripped naked, vibrating in a void of shapeless energies, with resistless mass, colliding, crushing, wasting, and destroying what these same energies had created and labored from eternity to perfect. Henry Adams crushperfectattitude The philosopher says--I am, and the church scouts his philosophy. She answers:--No! you are NOT, you have no existence of your own. You were and are and ever will be only a part of the supreme I AM, of which the church is the emblem. Henry Adams churchanswersphilosophy A parent gives life, but as parent, gives no more. A murderer takes life, but his deed stops there. A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. Henry Adams parentteachergiving History will die if not irritated. The only service I can do to my profession is to serve as a flea. Henry Adams fleasirritatedhistory Chaos breeds life; Order creates habit. Henry Adams chaoschangeorder One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible. Henry Adams true-friendfriendshiptwo A certain secret jealousy of the British Minister is always lurking in the breast of every American Senator, if he is truly democratic; for democracy, rightly understood, is the government of the people, by the people, for the benefit of Senators, and there is always a danger that the British Minister may not understand this political principle as he should. Henry Adams politicalgovernmentpeople No man likes to have his intelligence or good faith questioned, especially if he has doubts about it himself. Henry Adams inferioritydoubtmen At the utmost, the active-minded young man should ask of his teacher only mastery of his tools. The young man himself, the subject of education, is a certain form of energy; the object to be gained is economy of his force; the training is partly the clearing away of obstacles, partly the direct application of effort. Once acquired, the tools and models may be thrown away. Henry Adams educationteachermen
