Quotes by Edmund Morris

“History admires the wise, but elevates the brave.”

“We start at 25, as he begins to transform himself through sheer force of will from this asthmatic, nearsighted 125-pounder to this Sherman tank of a man.”

“there are floods of praise coming in as well as criticism.”

“drunks like James Cagney and Spencer Tracy.”

“He would nurse a beer through an evening of Irish revelry, affable and jovial, and carry his paralytically drunk companions home to bed without any disturbance to his life-long calm.”

“[Reagans eldest child Maureen recently said she has concluded Morris] wasted an incredible and irreplaceable opportunity, ... For your information, three of Reagans four children have supported my portrait of Ronald Reagan, saying that it represents the father they remember and love. Only Maureen, of the four children, is saying that she refused to read the book. This is a pity, because if she did, she would find it not only fair to him, but in places flattering to her.”

“The fact that the Reagans were not particularly hospitable to the Bushes during the eight years of the Reagan presidency was a well-known fact in the White House and in Washington. The Bushes were and remain loyal to Reagans memory, but the interview I had with them in December of 1988 made their private frustrations clear, and it is naturally embarrassing for them to have to confirm those feelings in public.”

“[One night in the mid-80s, Morris and his wife, Sylvia, had dinner with Reagan at the White House. Morris was being considered for the role of official biographer.] Damned if I can figure him out, ... Is he a political genius, or a bore?”

“Beethoven: The Universal Composer.”

In the tired hand of a dying man, Theodore Senior had written: The Machine politicians have shown their colors... I feel sorry for the country however as it shows the power of partisan politicians who think of nothing higher than their own interests, and I feel for your future. We cannot stand so corrupt a government for any great length of time.

Implicit in the stare of those eyes, the power of those knobbly hands, was labors historic threat of violence against capital.

Wall Street billionaires are predicting that Roosevelt-style railroad rate regulation will sooner or later bring about financial catastrophe. [ca. 1906]