American Historian Quotes

To say that a man is made up of certain chemical elements is a satisfactory description only for those who intend to use him as a fertilizer.

The world changed while I slept, and much to my surprise, no one had consulted me.

In England the practice of "virtual" representation provided reasonably well for the actual representation of the major interests of the society, and it raised no widespread objection.

Effective coordination of throughput required the placing of vigorous management controls over these despots.

It is always some illusion that creates disillusion, especially in the young, for whom the only alternative to perfection is cynicism.

Jacques Barzun
Jacques Barzun
It is only when the maker of things is a maker of things by vocation, and not merely holding down a job, that the price of things is approximate to their real value....

Ananda Coomaraswamy
Ananda Coomaraswamy
The boldness of his mind was sheathed in a scabbard of politeness.

When the members of the Tizard Mission brought one [magnetron] to America in 1940, they carried the most valuable cargo ever brought to our shores. It sparked the whole development of microwave radar and constituted the most important item in reverse Lease-Lend.

Give me a well-cooked, well-served meal, a bouquet, and a sunset, and I can do more for a man's soul than all the cant ever preached. I can even do it without a sunset!

It may well be that men of science, not kings, or warriors, or even statesmen are to be the heroes of the future.

Charles A. Beard
Charles A. Beard
Architecture is, to a certain extent, a sensual gratification. It addresses itself to the eye, and affords the best scope for the parade of barbaric pomp and splendour. It is the form in which the revenues of a semi-civilized people are most likely to be lavished. The most gaudy and ostentatious specimens of it, and sometimes the most stupendous, have been reared by such hands. It is one of the first steps in the great march of civilization.

William H. Prescott
William H. Prescott
Read somewhat in the English poets every day. You will find them elegant, entertaining and constructive companions through your whole life.

David McCullough
David McCullough
The prison life of the past looks in our own time like liberation itself.

Christopher Lasch
Christopher Lasch
In Philadelphia, Philadelphians feel, the Right Thing is more natural and more firmly bred into [them] than anywhere else.

His mind had one compartment for right and one for wrong, but no middle chamber where the two could commingle.

The mighty edifice of government science dominated the scene in the middle and twentieth century as a Gothic cathedral dominated a thirteenth century landscape. The work of many hands over the years, it universally inspired admiration, wonder and fear.

Macedonia (or Macedon) was an ancient, somewhat backward kingdom in northern Greece. Its emergence as a Hellenic (Greek) power was due to a resourceful king, Philip II (359-336), whose career has been unjustly overshadowed by the deeds of his son, Alexander the Great.

The love of power and the power to attract love were not easy to reconcile.

I think that in the emergency situations like we have with potentially weapons of mass destruction, the agent in the field needs as much flexibility as he can and the decision of probable cause as to what's going to occur needs to be made not in headquarters and not by the attorney general and not by a special court in Washington, but by the agent in the field who needs to respond immediately.

Knowing the past is as astonishing a performance as knowing the stars.

History is always best written generations after the event, when clouded fact and memory have all fused into what can be accepted as truth, whether it be so or not.

Teaching is too vital an occupation to be left to the lazy or greedy or negative

Slavery as an institution that degraded man to a thing has never died out. In some periods of history it has flourished: many civilizations have climbed to power and glory on the backs of slaves. In other times slaves have dwindled in number and economic importance. But never has slavery disappeared.

As the Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel warned years ago, to forget a holocaust is to kill twice.

Iris Chang
Iris Chang
Management as an activity has always existed to make people's desires through organized effort. Management facilitates the efforts of people in organized groups and arises when people seek to cooperate to achieve goals.