Skip to content

Who, then, is right? How can we all be right? Half of our wise men declare that the world is going straight to perdition; the other half that it is fast becoming perfect. Both cannot be right.

— Henry Adams Democracy: An American Novel (1880)

Another quote →

Topics

Religion

More quotes by Henry Adams

I know of nothing useful in life except what is beautiful or creates beauty.

Esther: A Novel (1884)

It's always the good men who do the most harm in the world.

Every one who marries goes it blind, more or less.

Esther: A Novel (1884)

We never despised the world or its opinions, we only failed to find out its existence.

Someday science may have the existence of mankind in its power, and the human race commit suicide, by blowing up the world.

All Henry Adams quotes →

You may also like

All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.

Albert Einstein Moral Decay (1937)

Science and religion are two human enterprises sharing many features.

Freeman Dyson Infinite in All Directions (1988)

The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.

John Adams A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)

The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

Thomas Babington Macaulay History of England (1849)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Henry Adams (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.