Stephen Ambrose Quotes

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.

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.

Friends never cheat on each other, or take advantage, or lie. Friends do not spy on one another, yet they have no secrets. Friends glory in each other's successes and are downcast by the failures. Friends minister to each other, nurse each other. Friends give to each other, worry about each other, stand always ready to help. Perfect friendship is rarely achieved, but at its height it is an ecstasy.

American is the first democratic nation-state.

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.

Nothing is inevitable in life. People make choices, and those choices have results, and we all live with the results.

In one of his last newsletters, Mike Ranney wrote: "In thinking back on the days of Easy Company, I'm treasuring my remark to a grandson who asked, 'Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?' No,'" I answered, 'but I served in a company of heroes.

I was too young for Korea and too old for Vietnam.

In the 19th century, we devoted our best minds to exploring nature. In the 20th century, we devoted ourselves to controlling and harnessing it. In the 21st century, we must devote ourselves to restoring it.

Immigrants do more than help us win our wars, or set up cleaning shops or ethnic restaurants.

Andrew Johnson was a Southerner generally who proclaimed that his native state of Tennessee was a country for white men.

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?

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.

It is through history that we learn who we are and how we got that way, why and how we changed, why the good sometimes prevailed and sometimes did not.

American corporations hate to give away money.