From early childhood his moral principles had struggled blindly with his interests, but he was certain of one law that ruled all others — masses of m… - Henry Adams

Morality is a private and costly luxury.

General Grant seriously remarked to a particularly bright young woman that Venice would be a fine city if it were drained.

Although the Senate is much given to admiring in its members a superiority less obvious or quite invisible to outsiders, one Senator seldom proclaims his own inferiority to another, and still more seldom likes to be told of it. Even the greatest Senators seemed to inspire little personal affection in each other, and betrayed none at all.

He disliked the Empire and the Emperor particularly, but this was a trifle; he disliked most the French mind. To save himself the trouble of drawing up a long list of all that he disliked, he disapproved of the whole, once for all, and shut them figuratively out of his life.