“All the world had been at cross-purposes, had misunderstood themselves and the situation, had followed wrong paths, drawn wrong conclusions, and had known none of the facts. One would have done better to draw no conclusions at all. One's diplomatic education was a long mistake.”
The Education of Henry Adams (1907)
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Henry Adams 311
journalist, historian, academic, novelist 1838–1918Related quotes

The Devil and Daniel Webster (1937)
Context: He started off in a low voice, though you could hear every word. They say he could call on the harps of the blessed when he chose. And this was just as simple and easy as a man could talk. But he didn't start out by condemning or reviling. He was talking about the things that make a country a country, and a man a man.
And he began with the simple things that everybody's known and felt — the freshness of a fine morning when you're young, and the taste of food when you're hungry, and the new day that's every day when you're a child. He took them up and he turned them in his hands. They were good things for any man. But without freedom, they sickened. And when he talked of those enslaved, and the sorrows of slavery, his voice got like a big bell. He talked of the early days of America and the men who had made those days. It wasn't a spread-eagle speech, but he made you see it. He admitted all the wrong that had ever been done. But he showed how, out of the wrong and the right, the suffering and the starvations, something new had come. And everybody had played a part in it, even the traitors.

F 123
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook F (1776-1779)

“There are no wrong turnings. Only paths we had not known we were meant to walk.”
Part 3 “Ember to Ember”, Chapter 10 (p. 317)
Source: Tigana (1990)

“If I had followed my better judgment always, my life would have been a very dull one.”

Referring to Kathleen Hensman, a Delray Beach, Florida public librarian informing police about 9/11 suspects having used computers in the library where she works
"A Nation Challenged: Questions of Confidentiality; Competing Principles Leave Some Professionals Debating Responsibility to Government" http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00E13F83E5E0C708EDDA80994D9404482 by David E. Rosenbaum, The New York Times (November 23, 2001)

On mental illness, as quoted on Kenneth Gärdestad: Han ville inte gå någon annan väg än kärlekens väg, Sveriges Radio P4 Sörmland, published on 31 December 2015 (web) https://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=87&artikel=6333872

The Great Infidels (1881)
Context: The greatest men the world has produced have known but little. They had a few facts, mingled with mistakes without number. In some departments they towered above their fellows, while in others they fell below the common level of mankind.