Henry Adams Quotes

Men seek rest in a struggle against difficulties; and when they have conquered these, rest becomes insufferable.

Boredom, after all, is a form of criticism.

The more I get used to my life, the more restless I become.

Is it not astonishing that the love of repose keeps us in continual agitation?

This was in '79. I got pretty restless there, sitting around with a lot of people sitting around smoking cigarettes and talking about films, but nobody really doing anything.

With me, satisfaction is always very fleeting with our work. I always get a little restless with it.

Everything is vain and tortures the spirit instead of calming and satisfying it.

I was living in Woodstock for a long time, and I thought, I got to get out of here, man.

Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied.

You know, the standard state for people is 'mildly pleasant.' Negative emotions are quite rare, and extremely positive emotions are rare. But people are mildly pleased most of the time, they're mildly tired a lot of the time, and they wish they were somewhere else a substantial part of the time - but mostly they're mildly pleased.

Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.

Ours is a world where people don't know what they want and are willing to go through hell to get it.

It can never be satisfied, the mind, never.

Happiness? No, it's not there for me.

I'm not very happy idle.

It got to be so easy that I was actually disappointed.

What keeps me going is a constant sense of disappointment with what I've already done.

The secret of progress, the perpetual satisfying of wants followed by the springing up of new wants, is the secret of individual unrest and disappointment.

… discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man — and I will show you a failure.

I'm fed up of doing run-of-the-mill stuff.

Even if we artists are all very privileged, there's a constant frustration about how to do more or better, and never being satisfied.

If I had gone to Madrid, I would have scored more than 200 goals, but I knew I would have got bored.

I get dissatisfied really easily, and I have to constantly keep moving; I have to constantly keep doing things. I find it very hard to switch off.

Nobody is happy when they're not playing.

If you desire, you are restless.