She fell in love with the cataract and turned to it as a confidant, not because of its beauty or power, but because it seemed to tell her a story whi… - Henry Adams

Charles Francis Adams's memory was hardly above the average; his mind was not bold like his grandfather's or restless like his father's, or imaginative or oratorical — still less mathematical; but it worked with singular perfection, admirable self-restraint, and instinctive mastery of form. Within its range it was a model.

Harvard College was a negative force, and negative forces have value. Slowly it weakened the violent political bias of childhood, not by putting interests in its place, but by mental habits which had no bias at all.

...what struck boys most was their type. Senators were a species