Both were illogical and heretical by essence; — in strict discipline, in the days of the Holy Office, a hundred years later, both would have been bur… - Henry Brooks Adams

The force of the Virgin was still felt at Lourdes, and seemed to be as potent as X-rays, but in America neither Venus nor Virgin ever had value as force — at most as sentiment.

Adams could no more interest Algernon Swinburne than he could interest Encke's comet. To Swinburne he could be no more than a worm. The quality of genius was an education almost ultimate, for one touched there the limits of the human mind on that side; but one could only receive; one had nothing to give — nothing even to offer.

Seward would inspire a cow with statesmanship if she understood our language.