Words matter. These are the best Stephen Ambrose Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
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.
Washington and Jefferson were both rich Virginia planters, but they were never friends.
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.
Like their predecessors, the Presidents of today just throw up their hands.
As to the Indians, the guiding principle was, promise them anything just so long as they get out of the way.
History is everything that has ever happened.
American is the first democratic nation-state.
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.
My first book was the book that changed my life.
Washington, not Jefferson, freed his slaves upon his death.
The Holocaust was the most evil crime ever committed.
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?
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.
Andrew Johnson was a Southerner generally who proclaimed that his native state of Tennessee was a country for white men.
In 1945, there were more people killed, more buildings destroyed, more high explosives set off, more fires burning than before or since.
There are many more want-to-be writers out there than good editors.
The war in Vietnam I thought a dreadful mistake.
American corporations hate to give away money.
It would not be possible to praise nurses too highly.
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.
I thought Nixon was the worst President we had ever had, save only perhaps Andrew Johnson.
Immigrants do more than help us win our wars, or set up cleaning shops or ethnic restaurants.
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.
World War II, the atomic bomb, the Cold War, made it hard for Americans to continue their optimism.
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.
Custer had dead heroes. Crazy Horse had only live ones.
Reading your own material aloud forces you to listen.
Trial by jury. Live wherever you can make a living. How could a government based on such principles fail?
You don’t hate history, you hate the way it was taught to you in high school.
We are part of a country that outshines those that have gone before us and most of those in existence today.
The past is a source of knowledge, and the future is a source of hope. Love of the past implies faith in the future.
My favorite book is the last one printed, which is always better than those that were published earlier.
I was taught by professors who had done their schooling in the 1930s. Most of them were scornful of, even hated, big business.
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.
Dams have harmed our wildlife and made rivers less useful for recreation.
The number one secret of being a successful writer is this: marry an English major.
The more sophisticated we get, the more advanced our buildings and vehicles become, the more vulnerable we are.
The great wars of the 20th Century made it into the worst Century ever.
The Canadians have managed to live peacefully with their Indians. It is disgrace that the United States has not done the same.
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.
