Quotes from Joseph Ellis

Because he could not afford to fail, he could not afford to trust.

Washington's task was to transform the improbable into the inevitable.

Some models of self-control are able to achieve their serenity easily because the soul fires never burn brightly to begin with.

Rather than adjust his expectations in the face of disappointment, he (Jefferson) tended to bury them deeper inside himself and regard the disjunction between his ideals and the worldly imperfections as the world's problems rather than his own.