Everyone knows they’re going to die,” he said again, “but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently. - Henry Adams

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Engraved portrait of Henry Adams, facing right

Everyone knows they’re going to die,” he said again, “but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently.

English
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About Henry Adams

Henry Brooks Adams (16 February 1838 – 27 March 1918) was a U.S. historian, journalist, novelist and educator. He was the great-grandson of John Adams, grandson of John Quincy Adams and son of Charles Francis Adams, Sr.

Biography information from Wikiquote · Portrait adapted from Wikimedia Commons, William Notman (Public domain / CC0)

Also Known As

Pen Names: Frances Snow Compton
Native Name: Henry Brooks Adams
Alternative Names: Henry B. Adams

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Additional quotes by Henry Adams

A new friend is always a miracle...One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible. Friendship needs a certain parallelism of life, a community of thought, a rivalry of aim.

I turn green in bed at midnight if I think of the horror of a year's warfare in the Philippines ... We must slaughter a million or two foolish Malays in order to give them the comforts of flannel petticoats and electric railways.

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In his fancy, office was poison; it killed — body and soul — physically and socially. Office was more poisonous than priestcraft or pedagogy in proportion as it held more power; but the poison he complained of was not ambition; he shared none of Cardinal Wolsey's belated penitence for that healthy stimulant, as he had shared none of the fruits; his poison was that of the will — the distortion of sight — the warping of mind — the degradation of tissue — the coarsening of taste — the narrowing of sympathy to the emotions of a caged rat.

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