7 Henry Adams Quotes on Politics

Henry Adams quotes on politics

2. A period of about twelve years measured the beat of the pendulum. After the Declaration of Independence, twelve years had been needed to create an efficient Constitution; another twelve years of energy brought a reaction against the government then created; a third period of twelve years was ending in a sweep toward still greater energy; and already a child could calculate the result of a few more such returns.

7. Although the Senate is much given to admiring in its members a superiority less obvious or quite invisible to outsiders, one Senator seldom proclaims his own inferiority to another, and still more seldom likes to be told of it.

12. Knowledge of human nature is the beginning and end of political education.

24. Practical politics consists in ignoring facts.

28. Modern politics is, at bottom, a struggle not of men but of forces.

43. Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.

45. The work of internal government has become the task of controlling the thousands of fifth-rate men.