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Power is poison. Its effect on Presidents has been always tragic, chiefly as an almost indecent excitement at first, and a worse reaction afterwards; but also because no mind is so well balanced as to bear the strain of seizing unlimited force without habit or knowledge of it; and finding it disputed with him by hungry packs of wolves and hounds whose lives depend on snatching the carion.

Henry Adams
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Henry Adams's Popular Quotes

Unity is vision; it must have been part of the process of learning to see.

- Henry Adams

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 ef…

- Henry Adams

History will die if not irritated. The only service I can do to my profession is to serve as a flea.

- Henry Adams

One could not stay a month without loving the shabby town

- Henry Adams

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

- Henry Adams

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

- Henry Adams

Friends are born, not made.

- Henry Adams

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 hou…

- Henry Adams

Chaos breeds life; Order creates habit.

- Henry Adams
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