Top 57 Stephen Ambrose Quotes
#1. In America, Jefferson noted with approval, women knew their place.
Stephen Ambrose
#3. 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.
Stephen Ambrose
#4. The Canadians have managed to live peacefully with their Indians. It is disgrace that the United States has not done the same.
Stephen Ambrose
#5. We are part of a country that outshines those that have gone before us and most of those in existence today.
Stephen Ambrose
#7. Dams have harmed our wildlife and made rivers less useful for recreation.
Stephen Ambrose
#8. Nothing is inevitable in life. People make choices, and those choices have results, and we all live with the results.
Stephen Ambrose
#9. 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?
Stephen Ambrose
#10. 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.
Stephen Ambrose
#11. Jefferson owned slaves. He did not believe that all were created equal. He was a racist.
Stephen Ambrose
#12. To be a slaveholder meant one had to regard the African American as inferior in every way.
Stephen Ambrose
#13. I thought Nixon was the worst President we had ever had, save only perhaps Andrew Johnson.
Stephen Ambrose
#14. 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.
Stephen Ambrose
#15. Crazy Horse saw history as integrated in the present, incorporated into daily life.
Stephen Ambrose
#18. I'm no politician. I'm an historian who has learned through a lifetime of studying that nothing in the world beats universal education.
Stephen Ambrose
#19. Andrew Johnson was a Southerner generally who proclaimed that his native state of Tennessee was a country for white men.
Stephen Ambrose
#20. Neighbors are far better acoustic analyzers for determining the quality of their life versus any acoustic instrument left unattended by an expert.
Stephen Ambrose
#21. World War II, the atomic bomb, the Cold War, made it hard for Americans to continue their optimism.
Stephen Ambrose
#22. Like their predecessors, the Presidents of today just throw up their hands.
Stephen Ambrose
#23. I've always tried to be fair to my subjects. That's easy when they are as likable and admirable as Lewis and Clark, or Eisenhower.
Stephen Ambrose
#25. There are many more want-to-be writers out there than good editors.
Stephen Ambrose
#26. Custer had dead heroes. Crazy Horse had only live ones.
Stephen Ambrose
#27. Oftentimes the fascinating thing is that people who are seen as commanding figures at the moment that they were considered for President and did not run turned out to be treated by history as much more minor figures politically.
Stephen Ambrose
#28. Eisenhower is my choice as the American of the 20th Century. Of all the men I've studied and written about, he is the brightest and the best.
Stephen Ambrose
#29. The great wars of the 20th Century made it into the worst Century ever.
Stephen Ambrose
#30. All men ultimately want to know two things - 'To whom do I owe thanks that I should live in such opportunity?' And, 'Will I have the courage when the time comes?
Stephen Ambrose
#31. Nixon regarded himself as having been cheated by life. He never got my vote.
Stephen Ambrose
#32. The number one secret of being a successful writer is this: marry an English major.
Stephen Ambrose
#33. 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.
Stephen Ambrose
#34. Washington, not Jefferson, freed his slaves upon his death.
Stephen Ambrose
#35. The American Constitution is the greatest governing document, and at some 7,000 words, just about the shortest.
Stephen Ambrose
#36. Almost everything Truman did in foreign affairs I approve of.
Stephen Ambrose
#37. 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.
Stephen Ambrose
#38. Even before Watergate and his resignation, Nixon had inspired conflicting and passionate emotions.
Stephen Ambrose
#39. You don't hate history, you hate the way it was taught to you in high school.
Stephen Ambrose
#40. The more sophisticated we get, the more advanced our buildings and vehicles become, the more vulnerable we are.
Stephen Ambrose
#41. My favorite book is the last one printed, which is always better than those that were published earlier.
Stephen Ambrose
#42. In 1945, there were more people killed, more buildings destroyed, more high explosives set off, more fires burning than before or since.
Stephen Ambrose
#43. I think that the opportunity to improve race relations in the United States has been put off temporarily.
Stephen Ambrose
#44. 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.
Stephen Ambrose
#46. 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.
Stephen Ambrose
#47. Washington and Jefferson were both rich Virginia planters, but they were never friends.
Stephen Ambrose
#48. During the Second World War, the Germans took four years to build the Atlantic Wall. On four beaches it held up the Allies for about an hour; at Omaha it held up the U.S. for less than one day. The Atlantic Wall must therefore be regarded as one of the greatest blunders in military history.
Stephen Ambrose
#50. I was taught by professors who had done their schooling in the 1930s. Most of them were scornful of, even hated, big business.
Stephen Ambrose
#52. In the 19th century, we devoted our best minds to exploring nature. In the 20th century, we devoted ourselves to controlling and harnessing it. In the 21st century, we must devote ourselves to restoring it.
Stephen Ambrose
#53. As to the Indians, the guiding principle was, promise them anything just so long as they get out of the way.
Stephen Ambrose
#54. Trial by jury. Live wherever you can make a living. How could a government based on such principles fail?
Stephen Ambrose
#56. It is through history that we learn who we are and how we got that way, why and how we changed, why the good sometimes prevailed and sometimes did not.
Stephen Ambrose
#57. Immigrants do more than help us win our wars, or set up cleaning shops or ethnic restaurants.
Stephen Ambrose
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