Quotes from Richard Brookhiser

Lincoln told a family friend that his father taught him to work, but never learned him to love it.

notice these inconsistencies: Christian and anti-Christian polemicists

Washington offered a republican substitute for the dignity of royalty.

Inspiring words are potent, and sometimes dangerous, things. They can inspire idiots and devils as well as great man.

Lincoln was a master of small group theatrics.

Lincoln Road that sorrow is most difficult for the young because it, "takes them unawares." The old, he said, have learned to anticipate difficulty. Lincoln wrote that sorrow is most difficult for the young because it, "takes them unawares." The old, he said, have learned to anticipate difficulty.

Jefferson could strike up the band even when he was being lazy or fearful.

The towering genius is not apolitical.

Any man's life can be seen as a series of engagements with his fathers, Including the surrogates provided by life and literature.

If enlightened public opinion was a bulwark of freedom, then leaders must labor ceaselessly to enlighten or manipulate it.

She became at once more intimate and more exalted.

Good politicians know when to move on, sooner or later.

Lincoln had a stubborn concern for first principles.

As with almost every long oration, there were loose ends.

Humor and seriousness can be an unstable mix.

Only the stupefying ignorance of young women prevents them from comprehending the stupefying emptiness of the men who cluster round them.

Humor and seriousness can be an unstable mix.