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About this quote

What does it mean?
People seeking guidance from friends often mistakenly believe their power helps them.
In plain terms
Seeking education from duty paths is deceived by power in friends hands.
What can you take from it?
Be wary when friends offer power as a benefit.

Where it applies

  • mentorship
  • networking
  • career advancement

Putting it to work

  • evaluate motives
  • seek independence
  • question advantages

Questions to consider

  • Can friends truly help you?
  • Is power ever neutral?

Another view

Sometimes friends genuinely provide advantages without illusion.

More from Henry Adams

  1. Power when wielded by abnormal energy is the most serious of facts.

    Permalink to quote #26
  2. Modern politics is, at bottom, a struggle not of men but of forces.

    Permalink to quote #28
  3. Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts.

    Permalink to quote #25

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