If he could not go out into the world, the world could come to him.
I hope to stand firm enough not to go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country’s cause.
Go ahead, and fear not. You will have a full library at your service.
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 same magazines which not long before advertised products which would quickly allow women to return to their war work now extolled elaborate recipes which women could attempt if they stayed home and vacated jobs for men.
She feared that she would become a slave to superficial, symbolic duties.
(Taft’s mother’s) losing her firstborn had convinced her that children are treasures lent not given and that they may be recalled at any time. Parents, she firmly believed, could never love their children too much.
Excitement about things became a habit, a part of my personality, and the expectation that I should enjoy new experiences often engendered the enjoyment itself.
I read them (articles TR wrote on his honeymoon) all over to Edith and her corrections and help were most valuable to me.
Lincoln, considering a Cabinet nominee: “He is a Radical without the petulance and fretfulness of many radicals.
One journalist complemented another that his article on a dispute, “had made both sides see themselves as they are.
In the reflected gaze of his (her husband’s) steady admiration, she saw the face of the girl he had fallen in love with.
He (William Howard Taft) had little patience with the unconscious arrogance of conscious wealth and financial success.
As soon as (Teddy Roosevelt) received an assignment for a paper or project, he would set to work, never leaving anything to the last minute. Prepared so far ahead “freed his mind” from worry and facilitated fresh, lucid thought.
Of Teddy Roosevelt and his siblings, the author writes they were, “armed with an innate curiosity and discipline fostered by his remarkable father.
She was never satisfied with anything less than perfection, but she was no grind. She was too interested in people.
Why bother with fictional characters and plots when the world was full of more marvelous stories that were true, with characters so fresh, so powerful, so new, that they stepped from into the narratives under their own power?
The Yale graduate who had refused to read outside the course curriculum (the future Pres. Taft) suddenly found himself inspired.
If he (Teddy Roosevelt) lacked Will Taft’s immediate charisma, gradually his classmates could not resist the spell of his highly original personality.
(Theodore) Roosevelt confessed early fascination with “girls’stories” such as Little Man and Little Women and An Old-Fashioned Girl.
Edith (the future Mrs. Teddy Roosevelt) developed a lifelong devotion to drama and poetry. “I have gone back to Shakespeare, as I always do,” she would write seven decades later.
As ever, books remained a medium through which Theodore and Edith connected and interpreted larger world.
According to his habit, Theodore Roosevelt sought to harness anxiety through action.
The American people are strange in their attitudes toward their idols,” he (Taft) mused. They lead them on and then “cut their legs from under them,” simply “to make their fall all the greater.
Theodore Roosevelt’s father wrote him, “I fear for your future. We cannot stand so corrupt a government for any great length of time.
We are now parents. The love for our offspring has opened up fresh fountains of love for each other. Edwin Stanton to his wife.
I liked the thought that the book I was now holding had been held by dozens of others.
People will love him (Theodore Roosevelt) for the enemies he has made.
Those who knew Lincoln described him as an extraordinarily funny man. Humor was an essential aspect of his temperament. He laughed, he explained, so he did not weep.
I shall always be grateful for this curious love of history, allowing me to spend a lifetime looking back into the past, allowing me to learn from these large figures about the struggle for meaning for life.
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.