Marrette Kearns Quotes

For better than thirty years, as a working historian, I have written on leaders I knew, such as Lyndon Johnson, and interviewed intimates of the Kennedy family and many who knew Franklin Roosevelt, a leader perhaps as indispensable in his way as was Lincoln to the social and political direction of the country. After living with the subject ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

Became postmaster general, and Edwin M. Stanton, Lincoln's "Mars," eventually became secretary ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

She feared that she would become a slave to superficial, symbolic duties. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

The vice presidency "ought to be abolished," he told his friend Leonard Wood. "The man who occupies it may at any moment be everything; but meanwhile he is practically nothing. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition," he wrote. "I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

For recreation, Lincoln took up bowling with his fellow boarders. Though a clumsy bowler, according to Dr. Busey, Lincoln "played the game with great zest and spirit" and "accepted success and defeat with like good nature and humor. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

Fearing that Taft would be too reticent on the stump, Roosevelt barraged him with incessant advice. "Do not answer Bryan; attack him!" he counseled in early September, adding, "Don't let him make the issues. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

Their lifelong love of learning, their remarkable wide-ranging intellectual curiosity, was fostered primarily by their father. He read aloud to them at night, eliciting their responses to works of history and literature. He organized amateur plays for them, encourage pursuit of special interests, prompted them to write essays on their readings, and urge them to recite poetry. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

It is surprising," Roosevelt explained, "how much reading a man can do in time usually wasted. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

In the beginning we start with roses. The king's flower right? Only they wilt in less than a day, especially when exposed to the elements. But Carnations? Oh, what a beautiful flower. They come in every color. True, some are painted, but that doesn't mean they are less beautiful, and they never wilt. ~ Ruth McLeod-Kearns

I love you,baby.I will never tire of saying it,nor tire of you hearing it.I.Love.You. ~ Morgan Kearns

I write about presidents. That means I write about guys - so far. I'm interested in the people closest to them, the people they love and the people they've lost ... I don't want to limit it to what they did in the office, but what happens at home and in their interactions with other people. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

But unlike the "electric" excitement that had filled the room four years earlier, when Nellie had sparkled with happiness and Taft had "laughed with the joy of a boy," both the president and first lady clearly understood that the divisive convention had rendered Republican chances for election in November almost impossible. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

To illustrate the marked atmospheric contrast between the two cities, the writer Frank Carpenter observed that in New York, "a streetcar will not wait for you if you are not just at its stopping point. It goes on and you must stand there until the next car comes along. In Washington people a block away signal the cars by waving their hands or their umbrellas. Then they walk to the car at a leisurely pace, while the drivers wait patiently and the horses rest." While the capital might lack "the spirit of intense energy" that animated New York, Carpenter concluded that Washington, with its broad, clean streets and fine marble buildings (and its shanties generally hidden from view), offered "the pleasanter place in which to live. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

In order to "win a man to your cause," Lincoln explained, you must first reach his heart, "the great high road to his reason. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

Roosevelt repeatedly brought his clenched fist down on the palm of his other hand. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

Before any outcome was made public, the radicals had worked themselves into "a fury of rage," certain that the president "was about to give up the political fruits which had been already gathered ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

For your penance, say two Hail Marys, three our Fathers, and," he added, with a chuckle, "say a special prayer for the Dodgers. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

Assemblyman Isaac Hunt, who later became a close friend, would never forget the first time he saw Roosevelt. "He came in as if he had been ejected by a catapult," Hunt recalled. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

Of Teddy Roosevelt and his siblings, the author writes they were, armed with an innate curiosity and discipline fostered by his remarkable father. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

Unlike depression, melancholy does not have a specific cause. It is an aspect of temperament, perhaps genetically based. One may emerge from the hypo, as Lincoln did, but melancholy is an indelible part of one's nature. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

The story is told of Lincoln's first meeting with Mary at a festive party. Captivated by her lively manner, intelligent face, clear blue eyes, and dimpled smile, Lincoln reportedly said, "I want to dance with you in the worst way." And, Mary laughingly told her cousin later that night, "he certainly did. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

Republican Robert La Follette of Wisconsin had defied the machine to become governor by waging war on the railroads that ruled his state. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

Within the coming decade alone, three signal amendments would be added to the Constitution: the Sixteenth, giving the national government the power to levy a progressive income tax, without which many of the New Deal's social programs might not have been possible; the Seventeenth, providing for the popular election of U.S. senators; and the Nineteenth, finally granting American women the right to vote. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

We should constantly be reminded of what we owe in return for what we have. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

Lincoln, considering a Cabinet nominee: He is a Radical without the petulance and fretfulness of many radicals. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

Although the guilty verdict surprised few, the size of the resulting fine stunned the company and the country. For each of the 1,462 carloads of oil that had enjoyed an illegal rebate, Landis levied the highest possible fine, $20,000, generating a spectacular cumulative total of $29,240,000. Commenting on the hefty charge, Mark Twain drolly remarked that the sum evoked the bride's proverbial astonishment on the morning after her wedding: I expected it but didn't suppose it would be so big. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

Becky was a weed. Nobody ever wanted them taking over the bigger, prettier plants. People went to all extremes to make them go away. They sprayed poison, pulled until the roots gave way. They felt only like their garden was complete when every tendril was extirpated. This was how she felt from birth. ~ Ruth McLeod-Kearns

As Roosevelt took his place in the open carriage leading the procession, an additional surprise lay in store for him: 150 members of his Rough Rider unit, whom he had led so brilliantly in the Spanish-American War, appeared on horseback to serve as his escort of honor. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

As S. S. McClure well understood, the "vitality of democracy" depends on "popular knowledge of complex questions." At ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

I liked the thought that the book I was now holding had been held by dozens of others. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

Though we are confident that Blessed Martin had no serious sins with which to reproach himself, though his contemporaries assure us that they had moral certitude that he had ever preserved his baptismal innocence, he regarded himself, like St. Paul, as the least of all men and unworthy of the habit he wore. Martin never lost an opportunity of being humiliated; he gladly received any personal insults and injuries as an ordinary person would receive favors. Indeed, he evidenced clear signs of gratitude to those who humbled him - he looked upon them as his real benefactors, and nothing caused him so much affliction of the soul and mental anguish as hearing himself the object of praise. When he found himself thus honored, especially by those distinguished by their good sense and their position of dignity in the community, he promptly sought out the most hidden place and there mercilessly inflicted upon himself a penance, usually in the form of the discipline. When it was impossible for him to retire, he had the habit of striking his breast unobtrusively and humbling himself before Almighty God. Even at times, especially when he was not conscious of the fact that he was being observed, strange words of self-deprecation fell from his lips. We are assured that he often repeated epithets of scorn, that he would mutter: 'What real merit have you? Remember that you ought to be nothing but a slave. Only through the mercy of God are you tolerated by these holy religious. ~ J.C. Kearns

The choice of Blaine "speaks badly for the intelligence of the mass of my party," he ruefully continued. "It may be that 'the voice of the people is the voice of God' in fifty one cases out of a hundred; but in the remaining forty nine it is quite as likely to be the voice of the devil, or, what is still worse, the voice of a fool." Still, ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

Johnson saw preoccupation with principle and procedure as a sign of impotence. Such men were "troublemakers," more concerned with appearing forceful than in exercising the real strengths that led to tangible achievement. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

It's a bully speech," encouraged Roosevelt in reply. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

The books my mother read and reread provided a broader, more adventurous world, and escape from the confines of her chronic illness. Her interior life was enriched even as her physical life contracted. If she couldn't change the reality of her situation, she could change her perception of it. She could enter into the lives of the characters in her books, sharing their journeys while she remained seated in her chair. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

Britain is obviously one of the world powers and they bombed the World Trade Centre, which is a landmark in itself, and over in Britain you've got Buckingham Palace and the Eiffel Tower, which are big buildings, so to speak. ~ Robbie Kearns

The biggest danger to American stability," Johnson argued, "is the politics of principle, which brings out the masses in irrational fights for unlimited goals, for once the masses begin to move, then the whole thing begins to explode. Thus it is for the sake of nothing less than stability that I consider myself a consensus man. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

Will wrote frequently to Nellie, describing his daily routine in detail only a lover would not find exhausting. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

There was no need to remind Roosevelt who controlled the senate. "I persistently refused to lose my temper," he recalled. "I merely explained good-humoredly that I had made up my mind." Though he steadfastly refused ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

By privately endorsing Seward's spirit of compromise while projecting an unyielding public image, President-elect Lincoln retained an astonishing degree of control over an increasingly chaotic and potentially devastating situation. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

all relations of power rest on one thing, a contract between the leader and the followers such that the followers believe it is in their interest to follow the leader. No man can compel another - except at knifepoint - to do what he does not want to do."17 ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

I've been to the White House a number of times. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

I now rely on a scanner, which reproduces the passages I want to cite, and then I keep my own comments on those books in a separate file so that I will never confuse the two again. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

The ambition to establish a reputation worthy of the esteem of his fellows so that his story could be told after his death had carried Lincoln through his bleak childhood, his laborious efforts to educate himself, his string of political failures, and a depression so profound that he declared himself more than willing to die, except that he had done nothing to make any human being remember that he had lived. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

In every heart, there lives a Jack Kearns. ~ Rick Yancey

The Yale graduate who had refused to read outside the course curriculum (the future Pres. Taft) suddenly found himself inspired. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

To be successful one must make change an ongoing process. Quality is a race with no finish line. ~ David T. Kearns