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Henry Adams Quotes

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Famous Henry Adams Quotes

“For the first time in his life, Mont Blanc for a moment looked to him what it was - a chaos of anarchic and purposeless forces - and he needed days of repose to see it clothe itself again with the illusions of his senses, the white purity of its snows, the splendor of its light, and the infinity of its heavenly peace. Nature was kind; Lake Geneva was beautiful beyond itself, and the Alps put on charms real as terrors.”

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Book:The Education of Henry Adams
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“Evolution of mind was altogether another matter and belonged to another science, but whether one traced descent from the shark or the wolf was immaterial even in morals. This matter had been discussed for ages without scientific result. La Fontaine and other fabulists maintained that the wolf, even in morals, stood higher than man; and in view of the late civil war, Adams had doubts of his own on the facts of moral evolution:”

Morals
Book:The Education of Henry Adams
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“Charles Francis Adams was singular for mental poise — absence of self-assertion or self-consciousness — the faculty of standing apart without seeming aware that he was alone — a balance of mind and temper that neither challenged nor avoided notice, nor admitted question of superiority or inferiority, of jealousy, of personal motives, from any source, even under great pressure.”

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Book:The Education of Henry Adams
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“The first serious consciousness of Nature's gesture - her attitude towards life-took form then as a phantasm, a nightmare, all insanity of force. For the first time, the stage-scenery of the senses collapsed; the human mind felt itself stripped naked, vibrating in a void of shapeless energies, with resistless mass, colliding, crushing, wasting, and destroying what these same energies had created and labored from eternity to perfect.”

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Book:The Education of Henry Adams
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“Clementine had never encountered a germ in Purgatory before. Germs usually had very short and uneventful lives, so they usually just went straight to Heaven. The fact that most of them went straight to Heaven surprised a lot of earthlings, as earthlings viewed germs as fundamentally bad beings that crept into their bodies, snuggled up and gave them the snuffles, infections, rashes, coughs, upset tummies and diarrhoea. However, germs almost always acted on instinct and never with any malice.”

Humour
Book:Titus the Germ's Journey through Purgatory
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“Prunella had also learned, and then forgotten, that, as well as being ingenious, fish were incredibly progressive. Take, for example, the male seahorse, which shouldered the responsibility for giving birth. However, if that wasn’t impressive enough, some fish didn’t just believe in gender equality, they took it a step further and believed in male inequality. Take, for example, the anglerfish. The young, male anglerfish, which was significantly smaller than its female counterpart, would swim around the ocean until it came across a girl anglerfish, which it would latch onto with its very sharp teeth. Over time, the male would physically fuse with the female, connecting to her skin and her bloodstream, and dispensing of its eyes and internal organs in the process. The only thing the male anglerfish did hold onto was its testes. Prunella reasoned there were some things that boys would simply never give up.”

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Author:Henry Adams
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“Can you, without feeling still more shocked, think of a future existence where you will not meet once more father or mother, husband or children? surely the natural instincts of your sex must save you from such a creed! Ah! cried Esther, almost fiercely and blushing crimson, as though Hazard this time had pierced the last restraint on her self-control: Why must the church always appeal to my weakness and never to my strength! I ask for spiritual life and you send me back to my flesh and blood as though I were a tigress you were sending back to her cubs. What is the use of appealing to my sex? the atheists at least show me respect enough not to do that!”

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Book:Esther
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“Men were, after all, not wholly inconsequent; their attachment to Mary rested on an instinct of self-preservation. They knew their own peril. If there was to be a future life, Mary was their only hope. She alone represented Love. The Trinity were, or was, One, and could, by the nature of its essence, administer justice alone. Only childlike illusion could expect a personal favour from Christ. Turn the dogma as one would, to this it must logically come. Call the three Godheads by what names one liked, still they must remain One; must administer one justice; must admit only one law. In that law, no human weakness or error could exist; by its essence it was infinite, eternal, immutable. There was no crack and no cranny in the system, through which human frailty could hope for escape. One was forced from corner to corner by a remorseless logic until one fell helpless at Mary's feet. Without Mary, man had no hope except in atheism, and for atheism the world was not ready. Hemmed back on that side, men rushed like sheep to escape the butcher, and were driven to Mary; only too happy in finding protection and hope in a being who could understand the language they talked, and the excuses they had to offer.”

Virgin MaryHenry Adams
Author:Henry Adams
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