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Link	Quote	Stars	Tags	Author
4414cc8	For better than thirty years, as a working historian, I have written on leaders I knew, such as Lyndon Johnson, and interviewed intimates of the Kennedy family and many who knew Franklin Roosevelt, a leader perhaps as indispensable in his way as was Lincoln to the social and political direction of the country. After living with the subject			Doris Kearns Goodwin
4e2046d	I do not like hardness of heart, but neither do I like softness of head.			Doris Kearns Goodwin
284a4c6	We are now parents. The love for our offspring has opened up fresh fountains of love for each other. Edwin Stanton to his wife.		parenthood	Doris Kearns Goodwin
fce78f0	It is surprising," Roosevelt explained, "how much reading a man can do in time usually wasted."			Doris Kearns Goodwin
f74d614	My reading was always a kind of living," he explained later, "a longing to know some man or men stronger, braver, wiser, wittier, more amusing, or more desperately wicked, than I was, whom I could come to know well and sometimes be friends with."			Doris Kearns Goodwin
071fe81	all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.			Doris Kearns Goodwin
9f0a8b4	In 1908, in a wild and remote area of the North Caucasus, Leo Tolstoy, the greatest writer of the age, was the guest of a tribal chief "living far away from civilized life in the mountains." Gathering his family and neighbors, the chief asked Tolstoy to tell stories about the famous men of history. Tolstoy told how he entertained the eager crowd for hours with tales of Alexander, Caesar, Frederick the Great, and Napoleon. When he was windin..		heroism tolstoy lincoln legend	Doris Kearns Goodwin
44f656c	Modernizing the postal service was particularly important for the soldiers, who relied on letters, newspapers, and magazines from home to sustain morale.			Doris Kearns Goodwin
710422d	One-time rival and subsequent usurper Secretary of State Seward finally settled into an assessment of Lincoln that, "His confidence and compassion increase every day."		empathy leadership confidence personal-growth	Doris Kearns Goodwin
c6712e1	Before his marriage Lincoln enjoyed close relations with young women and almost certainly found outlets for his sexual urges among the prostitutes who were readily available on the frontier.			Doris Kearns Goodwin
336b52c	For recreation, Lincoln took up bowling with his fellow boarders. Though a clumsy bowler, according to Dr. Busey, Lincoln "played the game with great zest and spirit" and "accepted success and defeat with like good nature and humor."			Doris Kearns Goodwin
acfbb1f	When resentment and contention threatened to destroy his administration, he refused to be provoked by petty grievances, to submit to jealousy, or to brood over perceived slights. Through the appalling pressures he faced day after day, he retained an unflagging faith in his country's cause.			Doris Kearns Goodwin
feb13c2	Elizabeth Blair of brother Frank: he could "not let even a great man set his small dogs on him without kicking the dog & giving his master some share of the resentment."			Doris Kearns Goodwin
6fc9076	Discipline and keen insight had once again served Lincoln most effectively. By regulating his emotions and resisting the impulse to strike back at Chase when the circular first became known, he gained time for his friends to mobilize the massive latent support for his candidacy. Chase's aspirations were crushed without Lincoln's direct intrusion. He had known all along that his treasury secretary was no innocent, but by seeming to accept Ch..			Doris Kearns Goodwin
a000d71	Well, did anything interesting happen today?' [my father] would begin. And even before the daily question was completed I had eagerly launched into my narrative of every play, and almost every pitch, of that afternoon's contest. It never crossed my mind to wonder if, at the close of a day's work, he might find my lengthy account the least bit tedious. For there was mastery as well as pleasure in our nightly ritual. Through my knowledge, I c..		family memoir	Doris Kearns Goodwin
697cca4	More and more it seems to me that about the best thing in life is to have a piece of work worth doing and then to do it well.			Doris Kearns Goodwin
f97e5b2	One evening, Lincoln listened as Stanton worked himself into a fury against one of the generals. "I would like to tell him what I think of him," Stanton stormed. "Why don't you," suggested Lincoln. "Write it all down." When Stanton finished the letter, he returned and read it to the president. "Capital," Lincoln said. "Now, Stanton, what are you going to do about it?" "Why, send it of course!" "I wouldn't," said the president. "Throw it in ..			Doris Kearns Goodwin
6b297b6	Lincoln understood that the greatest challenge for a leader in a democratic society is to educate public opinion.			Doris Kearns Goodwin
0573705	Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing.			Doris Kearns Goodwin
0d33fa5	Roosevelt declared, arguing that "the insistence upon having only the perfect cure often results in securing no betterment whatever."			Doris Kearns Goodwin
14f8d5e	The U.S. Senate presented the most powerful obstacle to any progressive reform.			Doris Kearns Goodwin
6753ddb	all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It was on the meaning of the Declaration that battle lines were drawn. As"			Doris Kearns Goodwin
01f9ee6	The U.S. Senate presented the most powerful obstacle to any progressive reform. Because senators at the time were elected by state legislatures rather than by popular vote, the majority of senators owed their positions to their state machines. These organizations, William Allen White observed, were in thrall to the business interests that filled their coffers through campaign contributions or blatant bribery. In a number of states, the boss..			Doris Kearns Goodwin
a455101	Walt Whitman, who worked as a nurse in the hospital wards, that the harrowing experience made one's "little cares and difficulties" disappear "into nothing."			Doris Kearns Goodwin
4cd9488	It was Andrew Jackson's motto, he reminded, that "if you temporize, you are lost."			Doris Kearns Goodwin
619f367	Attempting to circumvent this declaration, Hunter recalled that Charles I of England had entered repeatedly into arrangements with his adversaries despite ongoing hostilities. "I do not profess to be posted in history," Lincoln answered. "On all such matters I will turn you over to Seward. All I distinctly recollect about the case of Charles I, is, that he lost his head in the end."			Doris Kearns Goodwin
8829b9c	As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics.' When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty--to Russia, for instance.		prejudice	Doris Kearns Goodwin
5332fa9	The flames of a new economic evolution run around us, and we turn to find that competition has killed competition, that corporations are grown greater than the State . . . and that the naked issue of our time is with property becoming master, instead of servant.			Doris Kearns Goodwin
6cc6f45	THE SUMMER OF 1863 marked a crucial transformation in the Union war effort--the organization and deployment of black regiments that would eventually amount to 180,000 soldiers, a substantial proportion of eligible black males.			Doris Kearns Goodwin
fa8f94a	This, then, is a story of Lincoln's political genius revealed through his extraordinary array of personal qualities that enabled him to form friendships with men who had previously opposed him; to repair injured feelings that, left untended, might have escalated into permanent hostility; to assume responsibility for the failures of subordinates; to share credit with ease; and to learn from mistakes. He possessed an acute understanding of th..			Doris Kearns Goodwin
0a07c1e	I trust you will have the grace to go and hang yourself rather than attempt to belittle a nation by running for the presidency,			Doris Kearns Goodwin
f56851f	To Lincoln's mind, the fundamental test of a democracy was its capacity to "elevate the condition of men, to lift artificial weights from all shoulders, to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all." --			Doris Kearns Goodwin
ee3addb	The mossy marbles rest On lips that he has prest In their bloom, And the names he loved to hear Have been carved for many a year On the tomb.			Doris Kearns Goodwin
5c1fa63	It is seldom that persons who enjoy intervals of public life are happy in their periods of seclusion.			Doris Kearns Goodwin
584d237	Tolstoy went on to observe, "This little incident proves how largely the name of Lincoln is worshipped throughout the world and how legendary his personality has become. Now, why was Lincoln so great that he overshadows all other national heroes? He really was not a great general like Napoleon or Washington; he was not such a skilful statesman as Gladstone or Frederick the Great; but his supremacy expresses itself altogether in his peculiar..			Doris Kearns Goodwin
2c96169	Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics.' When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty--to Ru..			Doris Kearns Goodwin
a552f85	Frances, who also was feeling distant from her husband. Though still deeply in love after ten years of marriage, Frances worried that her husband's passion for politics and worldly achievement surpassed his love for his family. She mourned "losing my influence over a heart I once thought so entirely my own," increasingly apprehensive that she and her husband were "differently constituted."			Doris Kearns Goodwin
b4418ef	On a hot summer night in July 1836, an organized mob broke into the shop where the abolitionist weekly was printed, dismantled the press, and tore up the edition that was about to be circulated.			Doris Kearns Goodwin
0c65858	The Know Nothings fought to delay citizenship for the new immigrants and bar them from voting.			Doris Kearns Goodwin
6ddcddc	Still, slander against the president and first lady continued to fill the columns of opposition papers.			Doris Kearns Goodwin
9035e83	This, then, is a story of Lincoln's political genius revealed through his extraordinary array of personal qualities that enabled him to form friendships with men who had previously opposed him; to repair injured feelings that, left untended, might have escalated into permanent hostility; to assume responsibility for the failures of subordinates; to share credit with ease; and to learn from mistakes. He possessed an acute understanding of th..			Doris Kearns Goodwin
147bb92	He called me "Bubbles," a pet name he had chosen, he told me, because I seemed to enjoy so many things. Anxious to confirm his description, I refused to let my enthusiasm wane, even when I grew tired or grumpy. Thus excitement about things became a habit, a part of my personality, and the expectation that I should enjoy new experiences often engendered the enjoyment itself."		passionate-living	Doris Kearns Goodwin
6b60489	Ambition is a passion, at once strong and insidious, and is very apt to cheet a man out of his happiness and his true respectability of character.			Doris Kearns Goodwin
efbf5f3	After ministering each day to the hundreds of young men who had endured ghastly wounds, submitted to amputations without anesthesia, and often died without the comfort of family or friends, Whitman wrote, "nothing of ordinary misfortune seems as it used to."			Doris Kearns Goodwin

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