“…by action on man all known force may be measured. Indeed, few men of science measured force in any other way. After once admitting that a straight line was the shortest distance between two points, no serious mathematician cared to deny anything that suited his convenience, and rejected no symbol, proved or unproveable, that helped him to accomplish work. The symbol was force, as a compass-needle or a triangle was force.”

— Henry Adams

The Education of Henry Adams (1907)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 14, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "…by action on man all known force may be measured. Indeed, few men of science measured force in any other way. After on…" by Henry Adams?

Henry Adams 311

journalist, historian, academic, novelist 1838–1918

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

Source: A Wrinkle in Time: With Related Readings

“The straight line is regarded as the shortest distance between two people, as if they were points.”

Theodor W. Adorno book Minima Moralia

Nun gilt für die kürzeste Verbindung zwischen zwei Personen die Gerade, so als ob sie Punkte wären.
E. Jephcott, trans. (1974), § 20
Minima Moralia (1951)

“Any schoolboy could see that man as a force must be measured by motion, from a fixed point.”

Henry Adams (1838–1918) journalist, historian, academic, novelist

On the genesis of two of his historical and autobiographical works.
The Education of Henry Adams (1907)
Context: Any schoolboy could see that man as a force must be measured by motion, from a fixed point. Psychology helped here by suggesting a unit — the point of history when man held the highest idea of himself as a unit in a unified universe. Eight or ten years of study had led Adams to think he might use the century 1150-1250, expressed in Amiens Cathedral and the Works of Thomas Aquinas, as the unit from which he might measure motion down to his own time, without assuming anything as true or untrue, except relation. The movement might be studied at once in philosophy and mechanics. Setting himself to the task, he began a volume which he mentally knew as "Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres: a Study of Thirteenth-Century Unity." From that point he proposed to fix a position for himself, which he could label: "The Education of Henry Adams: a Study of Twentieth-Century Multiplicity." With the help of these two points of relation, he hoped to project his lines forward and backward indefinitely, subject to correction from any one who should know better. Thereupon, he sailed for home.

“Susceptibility to the highest forces is the highest genius; selection between them is the highest science; their mass is the highest educator. Man always made, and still makes, grotesque blunders in selecting and measuring forces, taken at random from the heap, but he never made a mistake in the value he set on the whole, which he symbolized as unity and worshipped as God.”

Henry Adams (1838–1918) journalist, historian, academic, novelist

The Education of Henry Adams (1907)

“A war minister is able to force the adoption of any measure desired by the Camp or to block any measure that meets his disapproval.”

Sadao Araki (1877–1966) Japanese general

Quoted in "Shakai kagaku tokyu" - Page 883 - by Waseda Daigaku Shakai Kagaku Kenkyujo, Waseda Daigaku Ajia Taiheiyo Kenkyu Senta - Social sciences - 1992