"The new American, like the new European, was the servant of the powerhouse, as the European of the twelfth century was the servant of the Church."
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Quote collection
Henry Adams quotes (page 8 of 11)
215 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"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."
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"For reasons which many persons thought ridiculous, Mrs. Lightfoot Lee decided to pass the winter in Washington."
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"A boy's will is his life, and he dies when it is broken, as the colt dies in harness, taking a new nature in becoming tame."
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"By nature, man is lazy, working only under compulsion; and when he is strong we will always live, as far as he can, upon the labor or the property of the weak."
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"If I grapple with sin in my own strength, the devil knows he may go to sleep."
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"In the history of the United States, there is no continuity at all. You can cut through it anywhere and nothing on this side of the cut has anything to do with anything on the other side."
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"My favorite figure of the American author is that of a man who breeds a favorite dog, which he throws into the Mississippi River for the pleasure of making a splash. The river does not splash, but it drowns the dog."
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"Since [Rousseau's] time, and largely thanks to him, the Ego has steadily tended to efface itself, and, for purposes of model, to become a manikin on which the toilet of education is to be draped in order to show the fit or misfit of the clothes. The object of study is the garment, not the figure."
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"In correct theology, the Virgin ought not to be represented in bed, for she could not suffer like ordinary women, but her palace at Chartres is not much troubled by theology, and to her, as empress-mother, the pain of child-birth was a pleasure which she wanted her people to share."
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"Analogies are figures intended to serve as fatal weapons if they succeed, and as innocent toys if they fail."
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"The photograph is a coarse fraud, and seems to delight only in taking the whole beauty out of the picture."
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"His brothers were the type; he was the variation."
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"Education should try to lessen the obstacles, diminish the friction, invigorate the energy, and should train minds to react, not at haphazard, but by choice, on the lines of force that attract their world. What one knows is, in youth, of little moment; they know enough who know how to learn."
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"Only on the edge of the grave can man conclude anything."
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"Throughout human history the waste of mind has been appalling, and, as this story is meant to show, society has conspired to promote it. No doubt the teacher is the worst criminal, but the world stands behind him and drags the student from his course."
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"American art, like the American language and American education, was as far as possible sexless."
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"Of all studies, the one he would rather have avoided was that of his own mind. He knew no tragedy so heartrending as introspection."
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"Teachers affect eternity. There is no telling where their influence stops."
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"The tourist was the great conservative who hated novelty and adored dirt."
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