Henry Adams Quotes
When a majority could benefit only its enemies by telling the truth, history shows that honorable men often preferred to tell what is untrue.
Henry Adams, 1838-1918, Historian, History of the United States of America during the Administrations of James Madison
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The Presidential Campaigns of 2008 and 2012 shocked many Americans for the blatant lies that opponents of President Obama wrote and broadcast and then some of the retaliatory lies that Obama defenders responded with. However, this quotation from a 19th century political historian shows us that blatant lying in American politics is not at all new.
Comment to President Teddy Roosevelt as while he, as US Secretary of State, dealt extensively with a deceitful Russia as they attempted to expand into Chinese Manchuria which eventually led to the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905.
See Ben Franklin for an earlier similar sentiment {465143}.
Henry Brooks Adams was an American historian and a member of the Adams political family, descended from two U.S. Presidents.