Quotes by Stephen Ambrose

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 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 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 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.