| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
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| NUMBER: | 2795 |
| QUOTATION: | The Woman had once been supreme; in France she still seemed potent, not merely as a sentiment but as a force; why was she unknown in America? for evidently America was ashamed of her, and she was ashamed of herself, otherwise they would not have strewn fig-leaves so profusely all over her. When she was a true force, she was ignorant of fig-leaves, but the monthly-magazine-made American female had not a feature that would have been recognized by Adam. The trait was notorious, and often humorous, but anyone brought up among Puritans knew that sex was sin. In any previous age, sex was strength. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Henry Adams (1838–1918), U.S. historian. The Education of Henry Adams, ch. 25, Houghton Mifflin (1918). |
| BIOGRAPHY: | Columbia Encyclopedia. |
| WORKS: | Adams Collection. |
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| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
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