American politics is a struggle, not of men but of forces. The men become every year more and more creatures of force, massed about central power houses.
Henry AdamsRead
A new friend is always a miracle, but at thirty-three years old, such a bird of paradise rising in the sage-brush was an avatar. One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly
Interpretation
What this quote means
Friendship is a rare and valuable gift, especially as we age.
This quote emphasizes the rarity and significance of finding true friends, especially in adulthood. The metaphor of a 'bird of paradise' suggests that true friends are extraordinary and exceptional, making each friendship a remarkable event in one's life.
Themes
FriendshipRareValueMiracleConnections
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of relationships, I will use this quote to illustrate how significant friendships can be.
More from Henry Adams
All quotes →Of all studies, the one he would rather have avoided was that of his own mind. He knew no tragedy so heartrending as introspection.
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Simplicity is the most deceitful mistress that ever betrayed man.
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Church and State, Soul and Body, God and Man, are all one at Mont Saint Michel, and the business of all is to fight, each in his own way, or to stand guard for each other.
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The American President resembles the commander of a ship at sea. He must have a helm to grasp, a course to steer, a port to seek.
Henry AdamsRead
The effect of power and publicity on all men is the aggravation of self, a sort of tumor that ends by killing the victim's sympathies.
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Similar quotes
I am able to say that I was very much liked at the school. I even had quite some ascendancy over my comrades, and as soon as I appeared in the school yard, I was surrounded by young friends, most of them bigger than I, but who were quite willing to give the appearance of disciples; they would have defended me furiously if necessary.
Marquis De LafayetteRead
Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.
Jane AustenRead
No human relation gives one possession in another—every two souls are absolutely different. In friendship or in love, the two side by side raise hands together to find what one cannot reach alone.
Khalil GibranRead
God is not so wary as we, else He would give us no friends, lest we forget Him! The charms of the heaven in the bush are superseded, I fear, by the heaven in the hand, occasionally.
Emily DickinsonRead
I get by with a little help from my friends.
John LennonRead
We often choose a friend as we do a mistress - for no particular excellence in themselves, but merely from some circumstance that flatters our self-love.
William HazlittRead