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f3c8aef To me, history ought to be a source of pleasure. It isn't just part of our civic responsibility. To me, it's an enlargement of the experience of being alive, just the way literature or art or music is. mankind responsibility history humanity life civic-responsibility David McCullough
6fcfc3d Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard. writing precision creative-process thinking thought David McCullough
ecf6a8c Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives. - John Adams political service patriotism David McCullough
20416e7 The longer I live, the more I read, the more patiently I think and the more anxiously I inquire, the less I seem to know...do justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly. This is enough. David McCullough
76f4f28 When a friend of Abigail and John Adams was killed at Bunker Hill, Abigail's response was to write a letter to her husband and include these words, "My bursting heart must find vent at my pen." women inspirational literary historical David McCullough
bd88196 If I were giving a young man advice as to how he might succeed in life, I would say to him, pick out a good father and mother, and begin life in Ohio. WILBUR WRIGHT David McCullough
a502ee9 You've got to marinate your head, in that time and culture. You've got to become them." (Speaking about researching, and reading, and immersing yourself in History)" history David McCullough
5240204 The year 1776, celebrated as the birth year of the nation and for the signing of the Declaration of Independence, was for those who carried the fight for independence forward a year of all-too-few victories, of sustained suffering, disease, hunger, desertion, cowardice, disillusionment, defeat, terrible discouragement, and fear, as they would never forget, but also of phenomenal courage and bedrock devotion to country, and that, too they wo.. David McCullough
de740e3 No harm's done to history by making it something someone would want to read. writing David McCullough
0f9301c Let the children have their night of fun and laughter. Let the gifts of Father Christmas delight their play. Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures before we turn again to the stern task and the formidable years that lie before us, resolved that, by our sacrifice and daring, these same children shall not be robbed of their inheritance or denied their right to live in a free and decent world." Winston Churchill Chris.. hope christmas David McCullough
504e706 So, it was done, the break was made, in words at least: on July 2, 1776, in Philadelphia, the American colonies declared independence. If not all thirteen clocks had struck as one, twelve had, and with the other silent, the effect was the same. It was John Adams, more than anyone, who had made it happen. Further, he seems to have understood more clearly than any what a momentous day it was and in the privacy of two long letters to Abigail, .. David McCullough
44ed744 All the money anyone needs is just enough to prevent one from being a burden on others. David McCullough
3671e39 I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study paintings, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain. David McCullough
a1b97f3 According to Adams, Jefferson proposed that he, Adams, do the writing [pf the Declaration of Independence], but that he declined, telling Jefferson he must do it. Why?" Jefferson asked, as Adams would recount. Reasons enough," Adams said. What can be your reasons?" Reason first: you are a Virginian and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason second: I am obnoxious, suspected and unpopular. You are very much otherwis.. David McCullough
aac0278 You have overburdened your argument with ostentatious erudition." Spoken by Abigail Adams" David McCullough
3bdb6da The source of our suffering has been our timidity. We have been afraid to think....Let us dare to read, think, speak, write. mccullough politics-freedom-liberty john-adams liberty government David McCullough
b4e107c No bird soars in a calm. WILBUR WRIGHT David McCullough
99b1a6f How can we know who we are and where we are going if we don't know anything about where we have come from and what we have been through, the courage shown, the costs paid, to be where we are? David McCullough
58b1a3d There are no people on earth in whom a spirit of enthusiastic zeal is so readily kindled, and burns so remarkably, as Americans David McCullough
9b41778 We learn much by tribulation, and by adversity our hearts are made better. David McCullough
bf509ff The best dividends on the labor invested have invariably come from seeking more knowledge rather than more power." Signed Wilbur and Orville Wright, March 12, 1906." David McCullough
47836c9 We cannot insure success, but we can deserve it. David McCullough
987fa31 George P. A. Healy; "I knew no one in France, I was utterly ignorant of the language, I did not know what I should do when once there; but I was not yet one-and-twenty, and I had a great stock of courage, of inexperience--which is sometimes a great help--and a strong desire to be my very best." george-p-a-healy traveling David McCullough
ea646fa But it isn't true," Orville responded emphatically, "to say we had no special advantages . . . the greatest thing in our favor was growing up in a family where there was always much encouragement to intellectual curiosity." David McCullough
a1449e5 The evil of technology was not technology itself, Lindbergh came to see after the war, not in airplanes or the myriad contrivances of modern technical igenuity, but in the extent to which they can distance us from our better moral nature, or sense of personal accountability. morality technology David McCullough
e736560 It was a day and age that saw no reason why one could not learn whatever was required - learn vitally anything - by the close study of books. reading pg-23 David McCullough
92780ed Government is nothing more than the combined force of society or the united power of the multitude for the peace, order, safety, good, and happiness of the people... There is no king or queen bee distinguished from all the others by size or figure or beauty and variety of colors in the human hive. No man has yet produced any revelation from heaven in his favor, any divine communication to govern his fellow men. Nature throws us all into the.. slavery liberty government David McCullough
fea0f0d In truth, the situation was worse than they realized, and no one perceived this as clearly as Washington. Seeing things as they were, and not as he would wish them to be, was one of his salient strengths. David McCullough
ee0f03d Remove yourself, sir! history funny david-mccullough john-adams David McCullough
75cbe42 I've always been dissatisfied, I know that. But lately I find that I reek of discontentment. It fills my throat, and it floods my brain. And sometimes I fear there is no longer a dream, but only the discontentment. David McCullough
0c85114 The man who wishes to keep at the problem long enough to really learn anything positively must not take dangerous risks. Carelessness and overconfidence are usually more dangerous than deliberately accepted risks. David McCullough
5cd1819 The more Adams thought about the future of his country, the more convinced he became that it rested on education. Before any great things are accomplished, he wrote to a correspondent, a memorable change must be made in the system of education and knowledge must become so general as to raise the lower ranks of society nearer to the higher. The education of a nation instead of being confined to a few schools and universities for the instruct.. David McCullough
9bf6058 a leader must look and act the part. David McCullough
35387c0 I lament the want of a liberal education. I feel the mist of ignorance to surround me - Nathanael Greene revolutionary David McCullough
1232ee0 Adams was both a devout Christian and an independent thinker, and he saw no conflict in that. David McCullough
ffe821d as the Sword was the last resort for the preservation of our liberties, so it ought to be the first thing laid aside when those liberties are firmly established george-washington president David McCullough
a1adfd8 As time would prove, he had written one of the great, enduring documents of the American Revolution. The constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the oldest functioning written constitution in the world. David McCullough
4d47bcd Not incidentally, the Langley project had cost nearly $70,000, the greater part of it public money, whereas the brothers' total expenses for everything from 1900 to 1903, including materials and travel to and from Kitty Hawk, came to a little less than $1,000, a sum paid entirely from the modest profits of their bicycle business. David McCullough
7453fdd The past after all is only another name for someone else's present. David McCullough
e8a8b3d It is in Paris that the beating of Europe's heart is felt. Paris is the city of cities." - Victor Hugo" David McCullough
93a8686 Lord Chatham, the King of Prussia, nay, Alexander the Great, never gained more in one campaign than the noble lord has lost-he has lost a whole continent. David McCullough
990295d Unfaithfulness in public stations is deeply criminal [he wrote to Abigail]. But there is no encouragement to be faithful. Neither profit, nor honor, nor applause is acquired by faithfulness. . . . There is too much corruption, even in this infant age of our Republic. Virtue is not in fashion. Vice is not infamous. David McCullough
14647cc The French dine to gratify, we to appease appetite," observed John Sanderson. "We demolish dinner, they eat it." The general misconception back home was that French food was highly seasoned, but not at all, wrote James Fenimore Cooper. The genius in French cookery was "in blending flavors and in arranging compounds in such a manner as to produce ... the lightest and most agreeable food." The charm of a French dinner, like so much in French .. David McCullough
d2b3aa7 Many of them were familiar from childhood with the fables of La Fontaine. Or they had read Voltaire or Racine or Moliere in English translations. But that was about the sum of any familiarity they had with French literature. And none, of course, could have known in advance that the 1830s and '40s in Paris were to mark the beginning of the great era of Victor Hugo, Balzac, George Sand, and Baudelaire, not to say anything of Delacroix in pain.. David McCullough
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