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9910dd1
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Life had shown him that logic and step-by-step planning hardly controlled events.
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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bd322ff
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All one can do is to prepare oneself, to wait in readiness for what might come.
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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9c30f05
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As a fit and necessary military measure for effecting this object, [preservation of the Union] I, as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, do order and declare that on the first day of January in the year of our Lord 1863 all persons held as slaves within any state or states, wherein the constitutional authority of the United States shall not then be practically recognized, submitted to, and maintained shall then, th..
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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2805e71
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by acting as if I was not afraid I gradually ceased to be afraid.
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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e9a6967
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While some men, he observed, were naturally fearless, he had to train his "soul and spirit" as well as his body. So, "constantly forcing himself to do the difficult or even dangerous thing," he gradually was able to cultivate courage as "a matter of habit, in the sense of repeated effort and repeated exercise of will-power."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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7fc5708
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Lincoln warned, the lawyer must not rely on rhetorical glibness or persuasiveness alone. What is well-spoken must be yoked to what is well-thought. And such thought is the product of great labor, "the drudgery of the law." Without that labor, without that drudgery, the most eloquent words lack gravity and power."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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77076ea
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Indeed, "the leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every other calling, is diligence. Leave nothing for tomorrow that can be done to-day." The key to success, he insisted, is "work, work, work."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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b72d514
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The key to Lincoln's success was his uncanny ability to break down the most complex case or issue "into its simplest elements." He never lost a jury by fumbling with or reading from a prepared argument, relying instead "on his well-trained memory." He aimed for intimate conversations with the jurors, as if conversing with friends. Though his arguments were "logical and profound," they were "easy to follow," fellow lawyer Henry Clay Whitney ..
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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62975b2
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If a person focused too much on a future that could not be controlled, he would become, Roosevelt acknowledged, too "careful, calculating, cautious in word and act."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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664770c
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Act like you're talking to those folks," he counseled his students. "Look one of them in the eye and then move on and look another one in the eye." During competitions, he utilized all his supple array of gestures and facial expressions to cue and prompt--now frowning, narrowing his eyes, creasing his brow, shaking his head, gaping in wonder--creating a silent movie to steer and goad his charges to victory."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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692c20f
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Do what you can, with what you have, where you are,
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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db3a431
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the leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every other calling, is diligence. Leave nothing for tomorrow that can be done to-day." The key to success, he insisted, is "work, work, work."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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fa4baa0
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A five minute speech," he pointed out, "with fifteen minutes spent afterward is much more effective than a fifteen minute speech, no matter how inspiring, that leaves only five minutes for handshaking."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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45d0e75
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A thought to God is the right way to start off my Administration," he told them. "It will be the means to bring us out of the depths of despair." --
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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4ef6f48
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Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment." But, he famously asserted, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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2ccc92e
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Now I believe in rich people who act squarely, and in labor unions which are managed with wisdom and justice; but when either employee or employer, laboring man or capitalist, goes wrong, I have to clinch him, and that is all there is to it.
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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90ed4e9
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If we could first know where we are and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do and how to do it.
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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bc6affc
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When angry at a colleague, Lincoln would fling off what he called a "hot" letter, releasing all his pent wrath. He would then put the letter aside until he cooled down and could attend the matter with a clearer eye. When Lincoln's papers were opened at the turn of the twentieth century, historians discovered a raft of such letters, with Lincoln's notation underneath; "never sent and never signed." Such forbearance set an example for the tea..
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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95b3ade
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Establish a clear purpose; challenge the team to work out details; traverse conventional departmental boundaries; set large short-term and long-term targets; create tangible success to generate accelerated growth and momentum.
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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657287e
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With public sentiment, nothing can fail," Abraham Lincoln said, "without it nothing can succeed."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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fedc19c
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So surely did Lincoln midwife this process of social transformation that we look back at the United States before Abraham Lincoln and after him.
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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a88f81d
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Lincoln never forgot that in a democracy the leader's strength ultimately depends on the strength of his bond with the people. In the mornings he set aside several hours to hear the needs of the ordinary people lined up outside his office, his time of "public opinion baths." Kindness, empathy, humor, humility, passion, and ambition all marked him from the start. But he grew, and continued to grow, into a leader who became so powerfully fuse..
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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981cbfb
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Avoid dull facts; create memorable images; translate every issue into people's lives; use simple, everyday language; never use big words when small words will do. Simplify the concept that "we are trying to construct a more inclusive society" into "we are going to make a country in which no one is left out."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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9c46c2b
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days,
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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There was a hush and everybody was holding their breath," Frances Perkins recalled. After what seemed a long-drawn moment of tension, he reached the rostrum, handed off his crutches, gripped the lectern edges with his powerful, viselike grip, tilted back his head, and "across his face there flashed a vast, world-encompassing smile."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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8726377
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Time is the most valuable thing you have; be sure you spend it well
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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3f6f616
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Regardless of one's impressive title, power without purpose and without vision was not the same thing as leadership.
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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e0f9ac6
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In Life magazine in the mid-fifties, Robert Couglan railed against "the disease of working women," who insisted on ruining their children and their family life."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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8815c3c
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Clay had been able, decade after decade, to quell rancor and bring opposing parties together in compromise. Time and again, he resisted "extremes of opinion" in both North and South. "Whatever he did, he did for the whole country."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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0e2057d
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He would blanket someone with generosity, care, and affection, but in recompense, expect total loyalty and sterling achievement. Failing this standard was perceived by him as a betrayal. His affection would be withdrawn, a pattern of behavior so pronounced it earned the epithet, the Johnson "freeze-out."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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4d515f6
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This was no dictator or Messiah holding forth. Franklin Roosevelt spoke in the name of the people for a resurgence of the strength of democracy, for a constitutional system capable of meeting "every stress" without losing its essential form."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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d015f7a
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if ever an argument can be made for the conclusive importance of the character and intelligence of the leader in fraught times, at home and abroad, it will come to rest on the broad shoulders of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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5a435ae
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The American people," Johnson continued, "are tired of wrecking crews. They want builders--people who construct. They will entrust their affairs to the party that is constructive. They will turn their backs on the party that is destructive.... If we go forward as positive Americans and not negative oppositionists I am convinced that the time is not too far distant when the Democratic Party will again be in the majority. The party that can p..
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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1d7b7f0
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Meanwhile, he continued to speak out on behalf of black citizens. In March 1846, a terrifying massacre took place in Seward's hometown. A twenty-three-year-old black man named William Freeman, recently released from prison after serving five years for a crime it was later determined he did not commit, entered the home of John Van Nest, a wealthy farmer and friend of Seward's. Armed with two knives, he killed Van Nest, his pregnant wife, the..
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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e035d88
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By anchoring his arguments firmly in history and law, he opened an antislavery approach that differed from the tactics of the allies of Garrison, who eschewed political organization, dismissed the founding fathers, and considered the Constitution "a covenant with death, an agreement with hell," because it condoned slavery. Where the Garrisonians called for a moral crusade to awaken the sleeping conscience of the nation, Chase targeted a pol..
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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974b123
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His experience taught him what every party boss has understood through the ages: the practical machinery of the party organization--the distribution of ballots, the checklists, the rounding up of voters--was as crucial as the broad ideology laid out in the platform. The same intimate involvement in campaign organization that he displayed in these early years would characterize all of Lincoln's future campaigns.
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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2661732
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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." A"
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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1bd9942
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For nearly two years, under Lyndon Johnson's domestic leadership, Republicans and Democrats had toiled together to engineer the greatest advances in civil rights since the Civil War and to launch a comprehensive, progressive vision of American society that would leave a permanent imprint on the national landscape.
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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e2a2854
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magnanimity
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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49cdac5
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surly
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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5b22791
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precocious
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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e1d2e02
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There was little to lead one to suppose that Abraham Lincoln, nervously rambling the streets of Springfield that May morning, who scarcely had a national reputation, certainly nothing to equal any of the other three, who had served but a single term in Congress, twice lost bids for the Senate, and had no administrative experience whatsoever, would become the greatest historical figure of the nineteenth century.
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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fba24d0
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indefatigable
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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874939d
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Seward's only hope for reelection lay in Weed's ability to cobble together an antislavery majority from among the various discordant elements in the state legislature. In the weeks before the legislature was set to convene, Weed entertained the members in alphabetical groups, angling for every possible vote, including a few Know Nothings who might put their antislavery principles above their anti-Catholic sentiments. At one of these lavish ..
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |