Esther Quotes

“Can you, without feeling still more shocked, think of a future existence where you will not meet once more father or mother, husband or children? surely the natural instincts of your sex must save you from such a creed!

Ah! cried Esther, almost fiercely and blushing crimson, as though Hazard this time had pierced the last restraint on her self-control: Why must the church always appeal to my weakness and never to my strength! I ask for spiritual life and you send me back to my flesh and blood as though I were a tigress you were sending back to her cubs. What is the use of appealing to my sex? the atheists at least show me respect enough not to do that!”
― Henry Adams, Esther

“She seemed to feel now, what she had only vaguely suspected before, the restraint which would be put upon her the moment she should submit to his will.

Must you know why I have broken down and run away? she said at last. Well I will tell you. It was because, after a violent struggle with myself, I found I could not enter a church without a feeling of-- of hostility. I can only be friendly by staying away from it. I felt as though it were pat of a different world. You will be angry with me for saying it, but I never saw you conduct a service without feeling as though you were a priest in a Pagan temple centuries apart from me. At any moment I half expected to see you bring out a goat or a ram and sacrifice it on the high altar. How could I, with such ideas, join you at communion?

Her little speech was not meant in ridicule of Hazard, but it stung him to the quick.

What you call Pagan is to me proof of an eternal truth handed down by tradition and divine revelation, he said at length. But the mere ceremonies need not stand in your way. Surely you can disregard them and feel the truths behind.

Oh yes! answered Esther, plunging still deeper into the morass. The ceremonies are picturesque and I could get used to them, but the doctrines are more Pagan than the ceremonies. Now I have hurt your feeling enough, and will say no more. What I have said proves that I am not fit to be your wife. Let me go in peace!”
― Henry Adams, Esther

“I still don't understand, said Esther. How can I make myself immortal by taking Mr. Hazard's opinions?

Because then the truth is part of you! if I understand St. Paul, this is sound church doctrine, leaving out the personal part of the Trinity which Hazard insists on tacking to it.”
― Henry Adams, Esther

“Do you know, I never could understand the humor of joking about funerals.

That surprises me, said Mr. Dudley. A good funeral needs a joke. If mine is not more amusing than my friends', I would rather not go to it.”
― Henry Adams, Esther

“You have a very rough way of expressing your tastes," said Mrs. Murray with a shiver, as they got into her carriage. "Do you know, I never could understand the humor of joking about funerals."

"That surprises me," said Mr. Dudley. "A good funeral needs a joke. If mine is not more amusing than my friends', I would rather not go to it.”
― Henry Adams, Esther