Stephen Ambrose Quotes

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

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

My first book was the book that changed my life.

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?

Nothing is inevitable in life. People make choices, and those choices have results, and we all live with the results.

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

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.

World War II, the atomic bomb, the Cold War, made it hard for Americans to continue their optimism.

Neighbors are far better acoustic analyzers for determining the quality of their life versus any acoustic instrument left unattended by an expert.

History is everything that has ever happened.

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.

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.

D-Day represents the greatest achievement of the american people and system in the 20th century. It was the pivot point of the 20th century. It was the day on which the decision was made as to who was going to rule in this world in the second half of the 20th century. Is it going to be Nazism, is it going to be communism, or are the democracies going to prevail?

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

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries you have these great nation states hurling their young men at one another. The victory was really going to rest on who could do the best job of bringing up their kids to become efficient and effective soldiers. That's pretty grandiose, I guess, but I do think that, and thank God it's been the armies of democracy that have emerged from this as the triumphant armies.

Friends never cheat on each other, or take advantage, or lie. Friends do not spy on one another, yet they have no secrets. Friends glory in each other's successes and are downcast by the failures. Friends minister to each other, nurse each other. Friends give to each other, worry about each other, stand always ready to help. Perfect friendship is rarely achieved, but at its height it is an ecstasy.

To have some parts flowing free again ... with deer grazing on its banks ... ducks and geese raising their young in the backwaters ... eddies and twists and turns for canoeists ... and fishing opportunities such as Lewis and Clark enjoyed ... would be the finest possible tribute to the men of the Expedition, and a priceless gift for our children.

Custer had dead heroes. Crazy Horse had only live ones.

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.

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

American is the first democratic nation-state.

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.

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?

The war in Vietnam I thought a dreadful mistake.

Even before Watergate and his resignation, Nixon had inspired conflicting and passionate emotions.

Most of the POWs were taken before they could cut loose form their harness. Among then was Pvt. Paul Bouchereau, a Louisiana Cajun. He was being taken to a German command post where other POWs were being harshly interrogated. The German captain, speaking English, was demanding to know how many Americans had jumped into the area.
"Millions and millions of us." One GI replied.
The angry captain asked Bouchereau the same question. With his strong Cajun accent, Bouchereau answered, "Jus' me!

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

The Canadians have managed to live peacefully with their Indians. It is disgrace that the United States has not done the same.

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

I was taught by professors who had done their schooling in the 1930s. Most of them were scornful of, even hated, big business.

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.

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.

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

Reading your own material aloud forces you to listen.

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.

You don't hate history, you hate the way it was taught to you in high school.

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

My favorite book is the last one printed, which is always better than those that were published earlier.

Almost everything Truman did in foreign affairs I approve of.

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