Quote

It is now conceded that all idea of British intervention is at an end... I want to hug the army of the Potomac. I want to get the whole army of Vicksburg drunk at my own expense. I want to fight some small man and lick him.

Henry Adams

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Henry Adams
Age: 80 †
Born: 1838
Born: February 16
Died: 1918
Died: March 27
Historian
Historian Of The Modern Age
Journalist
Mathematician
Novelist
Writer
Boston
Massachusetts
Frances Snow Compton
Henry Adams
Ideas
Army
Conceded
Whole
Fight
Lick
Men
Small
Hug
Fighting
Expense
Idea
Intervention
War
Expenses
History
Drunk
Ends
British
Potomac

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The study of history is useful to the historian by teaching him his ignorance of women.
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To my fancy, one looks back on life, it has only two responsibilities, which include all the others: one is the bringing of new life into existence the other, educating it after it is brought in. All betrayals of trust result from these original sins.
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During an election campaign the air is full of speeches and vice versa.
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Thank God, I never was cheerful. I come from the happy stock of the Mathers, who, as you remember, passed sweet mornings reflecting on the goodness of God and the damnation of infants.
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For after all man knows mighty little, and may some day learn enough of his own ignorance to fall down again and pray. Not that Icare. Only, if such is God's will, and Fate and Evolution--let there be God!
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American politics is a struggle, not of men but of forces. The men become every year more and more creatures of force, massed about central power houses.
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They know enough who know how to learn.
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Unbroken Evolution under uniform conditions pleased every one -- except curates and bishops it was the very best substitute for religion a safe, conservative practical, thoroughly Common-Law deity.
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We shall some day catch an abstract truth by the tail, and then we shall have our religion and our immortality.
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History is the most aristocratic of all literary pursuits, because it obliges the historian to be rich as well as educated.
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That the American, by temperament, worked to excess, was true work and whiskey were his stimulants work was a form of vice but he never cared much for money or power after he earned them.
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If it were worth while to argue a paradox, one might maintain that nature regards the female as the essential, the male as the superfluity of her world. Perhaps the best starting-point for study of the Virgin would be a practical acquaintance with bees, and especially with queen bees.
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History will die if not irritated. The only service I can do to my profession is to serve as a flea.
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History is only a catalogue of the forgotten.
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Average human nature is very coarse, and its ideals must necessarily be average. The world never loved perfect poise. What the world does love is commonly absence of poise, for it has to be amused.
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Practical politics consists in ignoring facts.
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Simplicity is the most deceitful mistress that ever betrayed man.
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My rule in making up examination questions is to ask questions which I can't myself answer. It astounds me to see how some of my students answer questions which would play the deuce with me.
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Nothing is more tiresome than a superannuated pedagogue.
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