Stephen Ambrose's Quotes

In America, Jefferson noted with approval, women knew their place.

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.

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.

Like their predecessors, the Presidents of today just throw up their hands.

My first book was the book that changed my life.

Nixon regarded himself as having been cheated by life. He never got my vote.

Reading your own material aloud forces you to listen.

The American Constitution is the greatest governing document, and at some 7,000 words, just about the shortest.

The great wars of the 20th Century made it into the worst Century ever.

The Holocaust was the most evil crime ever committed.

The more sophisticated we get, the more advanced our buildings and vehicles become, the more vulnerable we are.

The past is a source of knowledge, and the future is a source of hope. Love of the past implies faith in the future.

The war in Vietnam I thought a dreadful mistake.

There are many more want-to-be writers out there than good editors.

To be a slaveholder meant one had to regard the African American as inferior in every way.

Trial by jury. Live wherever you can make a living. How could a government based on such principles fail?

Washington and Jefferson were both rich Virginia planters, but they were never friends.

Washington, not Jefferson, freed his slaves upon his death.

We are part of a country that outshines those that have gone before us and most of those in existence today.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

The number one secret of being a successful writer is this: marry an English major.