Napoleon could never imagine that some people loved their country as much as he loved his own.
David McCulloughHistory isn't just what happened, but what happened to whom and why and what would have been different if the cast of characters had been different.
David McCulloughWhen the founders wrote about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, they didn't mean longer vacations and more comfortable hammocks. They meant the pursuit of learning. The pursuit of improvement and excellence. In hard work is happiness.
David McCulloughHistory is not just about dates and quotations. And it's not just about politics, the military and social issues, though much of it of course is about that. It's about everything. It's about life history. It's human. And we have to see it that way. We have to teach it that way. We have to read it that way. It's about art, music, literature, money, science, love - the human experience.
David McCullough