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

— Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams (1907), Ch. 1

About Henry Adams

1838 – 1918

American historian and writer, author of 'The Education of Henry Adams', which won the Pulitzer Prize after his death.

“Friends are born, not made.”

“One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible.”

“Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts.”

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

“He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.”

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”