Quotes from H.W. Brands

Fatigue could be the dealmaker's friend.

Grant, for reasons perhaps partly inborn and partly acquired, rarely revisited choices once made. He planned according to the information at hand; he prepared for all reasonable contingencies; he decided what to do as events unfolded. Then, calm in the conviction that he could have done no more, he accepted what destiny delivered.

When he came in first, he was happy to find all sorts of meaning in the results.

His was a quiet but persistent charisma.

It was a typical point, made in typical style, mixing pride and humility.

A totalitarian state is no different whether you call it Nazi, Fascist, Communist or Franco's Spain.

Such was the code: Strive for victory, but never seem to be self-involved.

It was about the end of December, 1857, or the beginning of January, 1858, when we reached Cedar county, the journey thus consuming about a month of time. We stopped at a village called Springdale, in that county, where in a settlement principally composed of Quakers, we remained.

His charm was not electric, but it was enveloping.

Time after time during the next six months, he would put me together again.

Indeed, the key to all diplomacy was knowing when they were serious about their threats and when they were posturing. Nations were like individuals, requiring cultivation and the paying of respect.

There is a lure in power. It can get into a man's blood just as gambling and lust for money have been known to do. This is a Republic. The greatest in the history of the world. I want this country to continue as a Republic.

He had always had a gift for conjuring images in his mind's eye. It was one of the secrets of his military success.

Gold, or at least the prospect of it, saved him, then killed him.

Western farmers were individualists cheifly in their dreams.

what white Southerners called "redemption" and others deemed simply the return to power of the Democrats, who sufficiently intimidated, cheated and otherwise discouraged Republicans, including most of the freedmen, that they counted for little in Southern politics. With any Democratic presidential nominee guaranteed the South, any Republican had to perform overwhelmingly in the North.

At Grinnell, named for Josiah Grinnell, Iowa's leading abolitionist, the reception couldn't have been more supportive.

He did something he rarely did. He decided not to see things from the other guy's point of view.

Accustomed to motion, he was forced to be still.

He cultivated ideological fuzziness.

He forced himself into good spirits.

These are not, however, the days of miracles, and I suppose it will be granted that I am not to expect a direct revelation. I must study the plain physical facts of the case, ascertain what is possible and learn what appears to be wise and right.

He was a product of a culture where it was generally counterproductive to hold grudges.

Eugene Debs entered jail a moderate Unionist and emerged a Socialist.