David McCullough Quotes
David McCullough Quotes
To me, history ought to be a source of pleasure. It isn't just part of our civic responsibility. To me, it's an enlargement of the experience of being alive, just the way literature or art or music is."
[The Title Always Comes Last; NEH 2003 Jefferson Lecturer interview profile]
2631 Morality only is eternal. All the rest is balloon and bubble from the cradle to the grave.
3896 Remove yourself, sir!
2486 History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.
4048 Nothing ever invented provides such sustenance, such infinite reward for time spent, as a good book.
2001 Indeed, bribery, favoritism, and corruption in a great variety of forms were rampant not only in politics, but in all levels of society.
2480 It was a day and age that saw no reason why one could not learn whatever was required - learn vitally anything - by the close study of books.
3890 In an exhibition wherein paintings of nudes were commonplace, that of Madame Gautreau in her black evening dress was considered scandalously erotic. -from The Greater Journey
2485 You can't be a full participant in our democracy if you don't know our history.
4599 You've got to marinate your head, in that time and culture.
You've got to become them."
(Speaking about researching, and reading, and immersing yourself in History)
1757 marinate your mind
4114 If you haven't met Kenny (Young) you have not seen how the spirit of Boston can be embodied by one single man.
4545 The study of history is an antidote to the hubris of the present – the idea that everything we have, everything we do and everything we think is the ultimate, the best.
2721 The author perceptively outlines what might be an underrated aspect of his subject and of many others whose public achievements are of note – a "gift for friendship". McCullough says Adams, despite his towering intellect and curmudgeonly demeanor, had a soft heart for other people and a genuine interest in their particulars.
3223 Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard."
(Interview with NEH chairman Bruce Cole, Humanities, July/Aug. 2002, Vol. 23/No. 4)
4522 David McCullough At Amazon