A friend in power is a friend lost.
Henry B. Adams

A teacher affects eternity he can never tell, where his influence stops.
Henry B. Adams

Absolute liberty is absence of restraint; responsibility is restraint; therefore, the ideally free individual is responsible to himself.
Henry B. Adams

Accident counts for as much in companionship as in marriage.
Henry B. Adams

All experience is an arch, to build upon.
Henry B. Adams

American society is a sort of flat, fresh-water pond which absorbs silently, without reaction, anything which is thrown into it.
Henry B. Adams

At best, the renewal of broken relations is a nervous matter.
Henry B. Adams

Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.
Henry B. Adams

Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man.
Henry B. Adams

Everyone carries his own inch rule of taste, and amuses himself by applying it, triumphantly, wherever he travels.
Henry B. Adams


Friends are born, not made.
Henry B. Adams

He too serves a certain purpose who only stands and cheers.
Henry B. Adams

Intimates are predestined.
Henry B. Adams

It is always good men who do the most harm in the world.
Henry B. Adams

It is impossible to underrate human intelligence - beginning with one's own.
Henry B. Adams

Knowledge of human nature is the beginning and end of political education.
Henry B. Adams

Morality is a private and costly luxury.
Henry B. Adams

No man likes to have his intelligence or good faith questioned, especially if he has doubts about it himself.
Henry B. Adams

No man means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous.
Henry B. Adams

No man, however strong, can serve ten years as schoolmaster, priest, or Senator, and remain fit for anything else.
Henry B. Adams