I’ve read several of McCullough’s books – The Great Bridge, Truman, Johnstown Flood. Always enjoyed them. I’ve been struggling a bit with this one. I don’t think it’s the book, I think I’m just tired of the subject. I just finished a biography of George Mason and another of George Washington, so the information is getting repetitive.
Few tidbits about the book……
Interesting that Congress voted in favor of independence on July 2nd, not July 4th.
John Adams was a quote machine: “Facts are stubborn things”.
“Laws for the liberal education of youth, especially for the lower classes of people, are so extremely wise and useful that to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant.”
“Pen, ink, and paper and a sitting posture are great helps to attention and thinking.”
“We may please ourselves with the prospect of free and popular Governments. But there is great Danger, that those Governments will not make us happy. God grant they may. But I fear, that in every assembly, Members will obtain an Influence, by Noise not sense. By Meanness, not Greatness. By Ignorance not Learning. By contracted Hearts not large souls.”
It's no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.
We pay when old for the excesses of youth.
Is he alone who has courage on his right hand and faith on his left hand?
The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.
The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable.
Man is a creature who lives not upon bread alone, but primarily by catchwords.
The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.
Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges.
A poet can survive everything but a misprint.
I have great faith in fools. Self-confidence my friends call it.
Fear of death increases in exact proportion to increase in wealth.
If the United States of America or Britain is having elections, they don't ask for observers from Africa or from Asia. But when we have elections, they want observers.
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just that his justice cannot sleep forever.
The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.
He too serves a certain purpose who only stands and cheers.
A man learns to skate by staggering about making a fool of himself, indeed, he progresses in all things by making a fool of himself.
I often try to tell kids to think about all the people who love you, don't cry over the one person who doesn't.
Most men are individuals no longer so far as their business, its activities, or its moralities are concerned. They are not units but fractions.
If a window of opportunity appears, don't pull down the shade.
Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for.
Freedom - to walk free and own no superior.
A vigorous temper is not altogether an evil. Men who are easy as an old shoe are generally of little worth.
There was never a good war, or a bad peace.
The year was 2081, and everyone was finally equal.
The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead.
To keep your marriage brimming, With love in the loving cup, Whenever you're wrong, admit it Whenever you're right, shut up.
I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.
Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.
Many openly show discontentment with their looks, but few with their intelligence. I, however, assure you there are many more plain minds than faces.
I just want to say, good night, sweet prince, may flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
There is nothing in the world like the devotion of a married woman. It is a thing no married man knows anything about.
The meaning I picked, the one that changed my life: Overcome fear, behold wonder.
Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.
The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry.
I guess I have always been deeply terrified to really be someone's wife since I know from life one cannot love another, ever, really.
Technology has to be invented or adopted.
An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows.
One does not need buildings, money, power, or status to practice the Art of Peace. Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train.
Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only pain we obey.
Sometimes if you want to see a change for the better, you have to take things into your own hands.
Tell the truth, but tell it slant.
To smile at the jest which plants a thorn in another's breast is to become a principal in the mischief.
Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.
How marriage ruins a man! It is as demoralizing as cigarettes, and far more expensive.
The reason for the sadness of this modern age and the men who live in it is that it looks for the truth in everything and finds it.
Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised.
One travels more usefully when alone, because he reflects more.
To make democracy work, we must be a notion of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.
To good and true love fear is forever affixed.
The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read With loads of learned lumber in his head.
I feel I'd like to share my luck and my life. Being in love is the best thing in the world.
Justice is truth in action.
Well I think they broke the mould when they made me and being humble is one of my great assets.
Musicians can run this state better than politicians. We won't get a lot done in the mornings, but we'll work late and be honest.
Life is a travelling to the edge of knowledge, then a leap taken.
Forty is the old age of youth, fifty is the youth of old age.
No matter what business you're in, you can't run in place or someone will pass you by. It doesn't matter how many games you've won.
Music is the fourth great material want, first food, then clothes, then shelter, then music.
Happiness: a good bank account, a good cook, and a good digestion.
Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.
Being divorced is like being hit by a Mack truck. If you live through it, you start looking very carefully to the right and to the left.
There's a beauty to wisdom and experience that cannot be faked. It's impossible to be mature without having lived.
Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold.
It has been my observation that parents kill more dreams than anybody.
We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the postive affirmation of peace.
Only passions, great passions can elevate the soul to great things.
Even cats grow lonely and anxious.
The enlightened ruler is heedful, and the good general full of caution.
Children are our second chance to have a great parent-child relationship.
You can find your way across this country using burger joints the way a navigator uses stars.
Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.
I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.
The ultimate end of human acts is eudaimonia, happiness in the sense of living well, which all men desire all acts are but different means chosen to arrive at it.
Friendship at first sight, like love at first sight, is said to be the only truth.
Try, try, try, and keep on trying is the rule that must be followed to become an expert in anything.
I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief... For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
To conclude that women are unfitted to the task of our historic society seems to me the equivalent of closing male eyes to female facts.
Dear God, Please send to me the spirit of Your peace. Then send, dear Lord, the spirit of peace from me to all the world. Amen.
Blessed is he who has found his work let him ask no other blessedness.
This love is silent.
Bachelors know more about women than married men if they didn't they'd be married too.
The wisdom of man never yet contrived a system of taxation that would operate with perfect equality.
How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?
I loved history because to me, history was like watching a movie.
I think teaching should be an exalted profession, not a picked-on profession.
The future enters into us, in order to transform itself in us, long before it happens.
Life levels all men. Death reveals the eminent.
Piety is not a goal but a means to attain through the purest peace of mind the highest culture.
I'm a competitive person and I love the challenge of mastering new things.
Success didn't spoil me, I've always been insufferable.
Injustice is censured because the censures are afraid of suffering, and not from any fear which they have of doing injustice.
Wink at small faults, remember thou hast great ones.
Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
Don't wish me happiness - I don't expect to be happy it's gotten beyond that, somehow. Wish me courage and strength and a sense of humor - I will need them all.
Though sages may pour out their wisdom's treasure, there is no sterner moralist than pleasure.
I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.
Money won't make you happy... but everybody wants to find out for themselves.
He's the kind of man a woman would have to marry to get rid of.
Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.
Anything that gets your heart racing is probably worth doing.
A lot of people are afraid to tell the truth, to say no. That's where toughness comes into play. Toughness is not being a bully. It's having backbone.
If you care enough for a result, you will most certainly attain it.
Reason is a crutch for age, but youth is strong enough to walk alone.
I went into the business for the money, and the art grew out of it. If people are disillusioned by that remark, I can't help it. It's the truth.
Thou must be emptied of that wherewith thou art full, that thou mayest be filled with that whereof thou art empty.
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
We have guided missiles and misguided men.
Always keep your smile. That's how I explain my long life.
Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth.
To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.
But friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold.
Some cause happiness wherever they go others whenever they go.
The first recipe for happiness is: avoid too lengthy meditation on the past.
Truth is certainly a branch of morality and a very important one to society.
Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.
Poetry is a political act because it involves telling the truth.
If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in government to the utmost.
Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.
Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.
I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun.
Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.
Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.
Every country has the government it deserves.
We cannot expect that all nations will adopt like systems, for conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.
Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening.
I was not looking for my dreams to interpret my life, but rather for my life to interpret my dreams.
Not by age but by capacity is wisdom acquired.
It's impossible to move, to live, to operate at any level without leaving traces, bits, seemingly meaningless fragments of personal information.
I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out.
Your words are my food, your breath my wine. You are everything to me.
They say the test of literary power is whether a man can write an inscription. I say, 'Can he name a kitten?'
Love is not a feeling of happiness. Love is a willingness to sacrifice.
Everyone who's ever taken a shower has an idea. It's the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference.
If there's not drama and negativity in my life, all my songs will be really wack and boring or something.
Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.
Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts?
I don't think the human mind can comprehend the past and the future. They are both just illusions that can manipulate you into thinking there's some kind of change.
Next to religion, let your care be to promote justice.
Fear of death makes us devoid both of valour and religion. For want of valour is want of religious faith.
No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.
Success is achieved and maintained by those who try and keep trying.
I'm not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.
There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.
Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil.
I have a great deal of company in the house, especially in the morning when nobody calls.
Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts - the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art.
There are no shortcuts in life - only those we imagine.
Experience is the best teacher of all. And for that, there are no guarantees that one will become an artist. Only the journey matters.
First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.
The life of an uneducated man is as useless as the tail of a dog which neither covers its rear end, nor protects it from the bites of insects.
You have to have a dream so you can get up in the morning.
If you want to be successful, it's just this simple. Know what you are doing. Love what you are doing. And believe in what you are doing.
The only way you can get good, unless you're a genius, is to copy. That's the best thing. Just steal.
Marriage is an adventure, like going to war.
From principles is derived probability, but truth or certainty is obtained only from facts.
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
Borrowing knowledge of reality from all sources, taking the best from every study, Science of Mind brings together the highest enlightenment of the ages.
I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.
Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds.
I was losing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty well known.
To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.
Waste your money and you're only out of money, but waste your time and you've lost a part of your life.
Grief can't be shared. Everyone carries it alone. His own burden in his own way.
Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.
Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.
It is the mark of a good action that it appears inevitable in retrospect.
It is always the best policy to speak the truth, unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar.
Science is but an image of the truth.
Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.
Even knowledge has to be in the fashion, and where it is not, it is wise to affect ignorance.
If you want to make enemies, try to change something.
When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.
To be a writer does not mean to preach a truth, it means to discover a truth.
Exclusively of the abstract sciences, the largest and worthiest portion of our knowledge consists of aphorisms: and the greatest and best of men is but an aphorism.
Respect... is appreciation of the separateness of the other person, of the ways in which he or she is unique.
The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world... to see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one.
It is great folly to wish to be wise all alone.
Frustration, although quite painful at times, is a very positive and essential part of success.
When he came back from downtown, he had forgotten to bring his license, his identification, the $2 for the wedding license. So we got married two days later.
Hope is some extraordinary spiritual grace that God gives us to control our fears, not to oust them.
Rugby is great. The players don't wear helmets or padding they just beat the living daylights out of each other and then go for a beer. I love that.
If you want plenty of experience in dealing with difficult people, then have kids.
A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected in as many ways they're capable of understanding.
The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
All of the women on The Apprentice flirted with me - consciously or unconsciously. That's to be expected.
To know yet to think that one does not know is best Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.
I never called my work an 'art'. It's part of show business, the business of building entertainment.
Children rarely want to know who their parents were before they were parents, and when age finally stirs their curiosity, there is no parent left to tell them.
We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.
Society cannot share a common communication system so long as it is split into warring factions.
His lack of education is more than compensated for by his keenly developed moral bankruptcy.
Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires.
If an eloquent speaker speak not the truth, is there a more horrid kind of object in creation?
I do not concern myself with gods and spirits either good or evil nor do I serve any.
Music makes me high on stage, and that's the truth. It's like being almost addicted to music.
Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.
A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past.
I like America, just as everybody else does. I love America, I gotta say that. But America will be judged.