Quotes by Doris Kearns Goodwin

“They all start competing against Lincoln as the greatest president. And the [library] building becomes the symbol, the memorial to that dream.”

“The past is not simply the past, but a prism through which the subject filters his own changing self-image.”

“Once a president gets to the White House, the only audience that is left that really matters is history.”

“That is what leadership is all about: staking your ground ahead of where opinion is and convincing people, not simply following the popular opinion of the moment.”

“His book on Lincoln is not only a classic in the field ... it is a treasured resource,”

“When I first began working on my Lincoln book, nearly a decade ago, he generously invited me to his home so I could peruse his fabulous Lincoln library. He sat with me for hours, suggesting which sources were the most important to begin my journey.”

“Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,”

“These are the kinds of moments when a president gives voice to the country. Theyre remembered forever, if its done right.”

“he may be able to say something good in the weeks ahead, but at least as it appears right now, that moment that calls for the president has passed.”

“I think thats what is possible, that somehow her protest and her vigil will make more people empathize with the casualties than have previously done so.”

As a nation, we began by declaring that ‘all men are created equal.’ We now practically read it ‘all men are created equal, except negroes.’ When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read ‘all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics.’ When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty—to Russia, for instance.

If he could not go out into the world, the world could come to him.

We have the right to demand that if we find men against whom there is not only suspicion, but almost a certainty that they have had collusion with men whose interests were in conflict with the interests of the public, they shall, at least, be required to bring positive facts with which to prove there has not been such collusion; and they ought themselves to have been the first to demand such an investigation. -Teddy Roosevelt

I hope to stand firm enough not to go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the countrys cause.

Well, did anything interesting happen today? [my father] would begin. And even before the daily question was completed I had eagerly launched into my narrative of every play, and almost every pitch, of that afternoons contest. It never crossed my mind to wonder if, at the close of a days work, he might find my lengthy account the least bit tedious. For there was mastery as well as pleasure in our nightly ritual. Through my knowledge, I commanded my fathers undivided attention, the sign of his love. It would instill in me an early awareness of the power of narrative, which would introduce a lifetime of storytelling, fueled by the naive confidence that others would find me as entertaining as my father did.

Go ahead, and fear not. You will have a full library at your service.

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 couldnt 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.

One-time rival and subsequent usurper Secretary of State Seward finally settled into an assessment of Lincoln that, His confidence and compassion increase every day.

Teddy Roosevelt had relished every hour of every day as president. Indeed, (he was) fearing the dull thud he would experience upon returning to private life.

The habit of mobility had become ingrained.