H.W. Brands Quotes & Sayings

Reagan to son: how really great is the challenge of proving your masculinity and charm with one woman for the rest of your life. Any man can find a twerp here and there who will go along with cheating, and it doesn't take all that much manhood. It does take quite a man to remain attractive and to be loved by a woman who has heard him snore, seen him unshaven, tended him while he was sick and washed his dirty underwear. Do that and keep her still feeling a warm glow and you will know some very beautiful music. — H.W. Brands

Fatigue could be the dealmaker's friend. — H.W. Brands

Grant made the perfect candidate, a war hero with indistinct views on most political issues. — H.W. Brands

The fact that California was the most cosmopolitan state in the union, as a result of the gold rush, simply made white voters more susceptible to racist and xenophobic arguments. — H.W. Brands

The first 10 days of a cattle drive were the most critical, as a stampede was most likely when the cattle were closest to their habitual home. — H.W. Brands

Even when he played, he made a business of it. — H.W. Brands

He was not a warm person, but he seemed to be, which in politics was more important. — H.W. Brands

Chinese immigrant: Americans make a mere practice of loving justice. — H.W. Brands

A live-in domestic worker: You are never sure that your soul is your own except when you are out of the house. — H.W. Brands

Such was the code: Strive for victory, but never seem to be self-involved. — H.W. Brands

Western farmers were individualists cheifly in their dreams. — H.W. Brands

Teain had no difficulty generating the indignation of a satirist. He lack the patience of a reformer. — H.W. Brands

coltish-looking, — H.W. Brands

Both sides had more confidence in their opponents' weaknesses than their own strength. — H.W. Brands

He lived in terror of, well, becoming ordinary. — H.W. Brands

Shiloh showed him what he could ask of his men, and indeed what he MUST ask of them. — H.W. Brands

Employment was better than idleness for men, because it kept the enemy guessing. — H.W. Brands

He was like a man thinking on an abstract subject all the time. — H.W. Brands

Time after time during the next six months, he would put me together again. — H.W. Brands

He was a product of a culture where it was generally counterproductive to hold grudges. — H.W. Brands

The strike spread with the speed of telepathy. — H.W. Brands

It is more important to me that my students come out of my class believing 'This story is interesting and I might want to know more about it', than to fill them up with information. If I can remind them or convince them that history is interesting then I feel I have succeeded, because unlike chemistry or physics, history is a subject that anyone can teach themselves, if they are interested.[ — H.W. Brands

Ben Franklin advises his grandson not to let even the American Revolution interrupt his studies, urging of young adulthood, This is the time of life in which you are to lay the foundations of your future improvement and of your importance among men. If this season is neglected, it will be like cutting off the spring from the year. — H.W. Brands

or creed." These rights included: The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation; The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation; The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living; The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad; The right of every family to a decent home; The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health; The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment; The right to a good education. Roosevelt — H.W. Brands

Warner Studios official in the era of silent movies: Who the hell wants to hear actors talk? — H.W. Brands

Proving himself to himself was no small matter. — H.W. Brands

His notes to the outside world offered a window on an active, sympathetic, eclectic mind. — H.W. Brands

What white Southerners called "redemption" and others deemed simply the return to power of the Democrats, who sufficiently intimidated, cheated and otherwise discouraged Republicans, including most of the freedmen, that they counted for little in Southern politics. With any Democratic presidential nominee guaranteed the South, any Republican had to perform overwhelmingly in the North. — H.W. Brands

John D Rockefeller read his Bible religiously, but kept his ledger in a different drawer. — H.W. Brands

Indeed, the key to all diplomacy was knowing when they were serious about their threats and when they were posturing. Nations were like individuals, requiring cultivation and the paying of respect. — H.W. Brands

Reporter Jacob Riis made it his mission to expose the horrors of poverty in New York. New to working with a camera, his flash actually set the walls of One apartment inhabited by five blind people on fire. — H.W. Brands

When he came in first, he was happy to find all sorts of meaning in the results. — H.W. Brands

I can see that spark coming back when he talks about the future. — H.W. Brands

The nature of revolutions is to sweep the reluctant along. — H.W. Brands

He adored competing but didn't want you to know he'd ever worked at it. — H.W. Brands

Abilene possessed greater vision, perhaps because it possessed little else. — H.W. Brands

I believe my mother was smart enough to know that in the night, you are willing to tell all. If she waited until the next day, she knew she'd get one-syllable answers. — H.W. Brands

He (the immigrant father) would walk by proxy in the Elysian fields of liberal learning. — H.W. Brands

What rendered it all acceptable was that government won the war, in astonishingly short order. Had the war dragged on or ended badly, the trust reposed in government might have been withdrawn. But the greatest conflict in human history was brought to a victorious conclusion for the United States only three and a half years after American entry. America's unprecedentedly large government defeated fascism; America's big government placed the United States at the pinnacle of world power. In the process, big government restored the nation's economic vitality and self-confidence. By 1945 most Americans found big government thoroughly acceptable, even necessary, and they had ample reason for feeling the way they did. — H.W. Brands

Gold, or at least the prospect of it, saved him, then killed him. — H.W. Brands

Andrew Carnegie was an inventor only in the sense that he adopted and adapted the discoveries of others. — H.W. Brands

In the immediate aftermath of the great Chicago fire, a business proprietor erected a shack in front of his burned-out business. On a sign, he placed his name and the tagline that everything was gone but wife, children, and energy. — H.W. Brands

Bushes may not be eloquent explaining emotion, but George HW Bush's mother knew enough to be in position with her children were ready to talk. She waited up not just to ensure safety but to make the most of the moment of excited emotions. The next morning, they would congeal into polite, one-word answers. — H.W. Brands

Diplomacy was a long game. — H.W. Brands

Franklin's inquisitive mind craved stimulation, consistently gravitating toward whatever community of intellects asked the most intriguing questions; his expansive temperament sought souls that resonated with his own generosity and sense of virtue. In five years in England he had found more of both than in a lifetime in America. "Of all the enviable things England has," he told Polly Stevenson, "I envy most its people. Why should that petty island, which compared to America is but like a stepping stone in a brook, scarce enough of it above water to keep one's shoes dry; why, I say, should that little island enjoy in almost every neighbourhood more sensible, virtuous and elegant minds than we can collect in ranging 100 leagues of our vast forests?" He left such people reluctantly and, he trusted, temporarily. — H.W. Brands

(Ben) Franklin was never content to let opportunity find him. — H.W. Brands

His was a quiet but persistent charisma. — H.W. Brands

He was trying to find his footing in a world both familiar and foreign — H.W. Brands

In imperial relationships, getting out proves much more complicated than getting in. — H.W. Brands

Theodore Roosevelt came to Dekota to experience the dying of one age with the slaying of a rare buffalo and the dawning of the West's industrial age. — H.W. Brands

He made his character his platform. — H.W. Brands

When speculators have once entered Wall Street, they never leave it except in a pine box or a rosewood case, according to circumstances. — H.W. Brands

The House adjourned without voting on the bill, but the following year a similar bill - mandating equality in hotels and restaurants open to the public, in transportation facilities, in theaters and other public amusements and in the selection of juries - passed both chambers. The measure reached the White House about the time the two sides in Louisiana cobbled a compromise that allowed Grant to withdraw Sheridan and most of the federal troops. On March 1, 1875, the president signed the Civil Rights Act, the most ambitious affirmation of racial equality in American history until then (a distinction it would retain until the 1960s). — H.W. Brands

Amid the war the capitalists were asserting national necessity. — H.W. Brands

I believe the road to preeminent success in any line is to make yourself master IN THAT LINE. I have no faith in the policy of scattering one's resources. Andrew Carnegie — H.W. Brands

The sight of big ships, of the many new uniforms, at once serious and cool, left Bush with an overall sense of the navy's power and camaraderie and purpose. — H.W. Brands

Cities force growth and make men talkative and entertaining, but they make them artificial. Ralph Waldo Emerson — H.W. Brands

The horizons of man are incomparably narrower than that of the land on which he toils. Editor of the Nebraska journal — H.W. Brands

He understood the code of his social class enough to affect an air of indifference about life. — H.W. Brands

Liberty and freedom and democracy are so very precious that you do not fight to win them once and stop. You do not do that. Liberty and freedom and democracy are prizes awarded only to those peoples who fight to win them and then keep fighting eternally to hold them. — H.W. Brands

A young mark twain on the make: I can't turn in inkstand into Aladdin's lamp. — H.W. Brands

Some months earlier one of his oldest friends, Junto charter member Hugh Roberts, had written with news of the club and how the political quarreling in Philadelphia had continued to divide the membership. Franklin expressed hope that the squabbles would not keep Roberts from the meetings. "'tis now perhaps one of the oldest clubs, as I think it was formerly one of the best, in the King's dominions; it wants but about two years of forty since it was established." Few men were so lucky as to belong to such a group. "We loved and still love one another; we are grown grey together and yet it is too early to part. Let us sit till the evening of life is spent; the last hours were always the most joyous. When we can stay no longer 'tis time enough then to bid each other good night, separate, and go quietly to bed." And — H.W. Brands

One with God is always a majority. But many have been burned at the stake while the boats were being counted. Thomas Reed — H.W. Brands

This senate was a place where good Representatives went when they died. Thomas Reed — H.W. Brands

One of George H. W. Bush's early teachers at Andover wrote, At the moment he is intellectually immature for his powers of reasoning are not entirely developed. — H.W. Brands

He was a generous but subtly demanding boss. — H.W. Brands

Reagan is described as delivering Barry Goldwater's doctrine with John F. Kennedy's technique. — H.W. Brands

We have so many people who can't see a fat man standing beside a thin one without coming to the conclusion the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one, — H.W. Brands

Once information slipped the bonds of gravity and friction, it tended to gather where it was most valuable. — H.W. Brands

Gen. Scott saw more through the eyes of his staff officers than through his own. — H.W. Brands

His charm was not electric, but it was enveloping. — H.W. Brands

It was a typical point, made in typical style, mixing pride and humility. — H.W. Brands

He forced himself into good spirits. — H.W. Brands

CONSERVATIVES IN MODERN America face a chronic problem in running for office. Often believing government to be the enemy, they have to explain to themselves and others why they want to join that enemy. — H.W. Brands

Soldiers in foreign camps, so far from being missionaries for good, require missionaries themselves, more than the natives. Andrew Carnegie — H.W. Brands

Publicity is the engine of politics. — H.W. Brands

Accustomed to motion, he was forced to be still. — H.W. Brands

It may be that the voice of the people is the voice of God 51 times out of 100. But the remaining 49 times, it is the voice of the devil, or worse, the voice of a fool. Theodore Roosevelt — H.W. Brands

He has not shown the special interest in reading that we should like to see but he likes shop work. George H. W. Bush's parents on his Andover application — H.W. Brands

He cultivated ideological fuzziness. — H.W. Brands

J.P. Morgan learned to fish in troubled waters. — H.W. Brands

These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war. — H.W. Brands

The very lack of explicit pressure was itself a compelling force, for it created a world in which the expectation of success was simply there, a fact of life as basic as breakfast. — H.W. Brands

He did something he rarely did. He decided not to see things from the other guy's point of view. — H.W. Brands

America's mission is to join the most ancient civilizations with the most modern. John Augustus Roeblin — H.W. Brands

He had always had a gift for conjuring images in his mind's eye. It was one of the secrets of his military success. — H.W. Brands

It's philanthropy, but it's good politics, too. Mighty good politics. The poor are some of the most grateful people in the world. George Washington Plunkett. — H.W. Brands

The audience perked up the more. American conservatives were a combative tribe who didn't speak of liberals as their "friends," but here Reagan did. His tone was serious, but it wasn't angry, the way Goldwater's often was. Reagan criticized Democratic leaders, but he didn't criticize Democrats. He condemned the direction the American government was going, but he professed confidence in the American people. — H.W. Brands

Eugene Debs entered jail a moderate Unionist and emerged a Socialist. — H.W. Brands

The politics of the possible was being replaced by the politics of purity. — H.W. Brands

William "Boss" Tweed was in such thorough control in New York that he made money off of the report the committee printed after investigating him. — H.W. Brands

The males (of the Hutchinson family that included both religious dissenter Anne and immensely wealthy and politically connected Thomas) were merchants who sought salvation through commerce. — H.W. Brands