- To be a slaveholder meant one had to regard the African American as inferior in every way.
- Washington, not Jefferson, freed his slaves upon his death.
- You don’t hate history, you hate the way it was taught to you in high school.
- Writing is not the easiest way to make a living. Your work long hours, usually all by yourself. It is not a way to make money.
- World War II, the atomic bomb, the Cold War, made it hard for Americans to continue their optimism.
- Winning the Revolutionary War, or the Civil War, or World War II were the turning points in our history, the sine qua non of our forward progress.
- Who today is willing to say that Texas and California and the remainder of the Southwest would be better off if they were governed by Mexico?
- We are part of a country that outshines those that have gone before us and most of those in existence today.
- Washington’s character was rock solid. He came to stand for the new nation and its republican virtues, which was why he became our first President by unanimous choice.
- American corporations hate to give away money.
- Washington and Jefferson were both rich Virginia planters, but they were never friends.
- Almost everything Truman did in foreign affairs I approve of.
- American is the first democratic nation-state.
- Andrew Johnson was a Southerner generally who proclaimed that his native state of Tennessee was a country for white men.
- As to the Indians, the guiding principle was, promise them anything just so long as they get out of the way.
- The war in Vietnam I thought a dreadful mistake.
- There are many more want-to-be writers out there than good editors.
- Trial by jury. Live wherever you can make a living. How could a government based on such principles fail?
- The number one secret of being a successful writer is this: marry an English major.
- Jefferson owned slaves. He did not believe that all were created equal. He was a racist.
- Johnson had been the most powerful man in the world, yet the North Vietnamese and the Vietcong had resisted, overcome his power, broken his will.
- Like their predecessors, the Presidents of today just throw up their hands.
- My favorite book is the last one printed, which is always better than those that were published earlier.
- My first book was the book that changed my life.
- Neither Johnson nor his party nor the government as a whole were willing to raise, train, equip, and then send Vietnam sufficient manpower to do the job.
- Nixon regarded himself as having been cheated by life. He never got my vote.
- Reading your own material aloud forces you to listen.
- The American Constitution is the greatest governing document, and at some 7,000 words, just about the shortest.
- The more sophisticated we get, the more advanced our buildings and vehicles become, the more vulnerable we are.
- The past is a source of knowledge, and the future is a source of hope. Love of the past implies faith in the future.
- It would not be possible to praises nurses too highly.
- The Canadians have managed to live peacefully with their Indians. It is disgrace that the United States has not done the same.
- The great wars of the 20th Century made it into the worst Century ever.
- Eisenhower had the clearest blue eyes. He would fix them on you. In my every interview with him, he would lock his eyes on to mine and keep them there.
- The Holocaust was the most evil crime ever committed.
- It does you no good to see the number two or number three man in the corporation-you have to get through to number one.
- Dams have harmed our wildlife and made rivers less useful for recreation.
- Eisenhower is my choice as the American of the 20th Century. Of all the men I’ve studied and written about, he is the brightest and the best.
- Crazy Horse saw history as integrated in the present, incorporated into daily life.
- Even before Watergate and his resignation, Nixon had inspired conflicting and passionate emotions.
- History is everything that has ever happened.
- I was taught by professors who had done their schooling in the 1930s. Most of them were scornful of, even hated, big business.
- I was too young for Korea and too old for Vietnam.
- I’m no politician. I’m an historian who has learned through a lifetime of studying that nothing in the world beats universal education.
- I’ve always tried to be fair to my subjects. That’s easy when they are as likable and admirable as Lewis and Clark, or Eisenhower.
- In America, Jefferson noted with approval, women knew their place.
- In 1945, there were more people killed, more buildings destroyed, more high explosives set off, more fires burning than before or since.
- Immigrants do more than help us win our wars, or set up cleaning shops or ethnic restaurants.
- I thought Nixon was the worst President we had ever had, save only perhaps Andrew Johnson.
- Custer had dead heroes. Crazy Horse had only live ones.
