Quote #30

Simplicity is the most deceitful mistress that ever betrayed man.

More from Henry Adams

  1. We combat obstacles in order to get repose, and, when got, the repose is insupportable.
  2. No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous.
  3. Modern politics is, at bottom, a struggle not of men but of forces.
  4. Even in America, the Indian Summer of life should be a little sunny and a little sad, like the season, and infinite in wealth and depth of …
  5. Those who seek education in the paths of duty are always deceived by the illusion that power in the hands of friends is an advantage to the…
  6. Absolute liberty is absence of restraint; responsibility is restraint; therefore, the ideally free individual is responsible to himself.
  7. Power when wielded by abnormal energy is the most serious of facts.
  8. Everyone carries his own inch-rule of taste, and amuses himself by applying it, triumphantly, wherever he travels.

All Henry Adams quotes