Stephen Ambrose

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Jefferson owned slaves. He did not believe that all were created equal. He was a racist.

It would not be possible to praises nurses too highly.

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

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

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.

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

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

History is everything that has ever happened.

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

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.

Dams have harmed our wildlife and made rivers less useful for recreation.

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

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

American corporations hate to give away money.

Almost everything Truman did in foreign affairs I approve of.

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

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