Quotes By Stephen Ambrose

I was too young for Korea and too old for Vietnam.

American corporations hate to give away money.

Andrew Johnson was a Southerner generally who proclaimed that his native state of Tennessee was a country for white men.

Almost everything Truman did in foreign affairs I approve of.

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.

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

I'm no politician. I'm an historian who has learned through a lifetime of studying that nothing in the world beats universal education.

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

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

Immigrants do more than help us win our wars, or set up cleaning shops or ethnic restaurants.

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

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

History is everything that has ever happened.

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.

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

The Holocaust was the most evil crime ever committed.

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.

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.

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.

In 1945, there were more people killed, more buildings destroyed, more high explosives set off, more fires burning than before or since.

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

As to the Indians, the guiding principle was, promise them anything just so long as they get out of the way.

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

My first book was the book that changed my life.

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

It would not be possible to praises nurses too highly.

Crazy Horse saw history as integrated in the present, incorporated into daily life.

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.

I thought Nixon was the worst President we had ever had, save only perhaps Andrew Johnson.