Lincoln had internalized the pain of those around him—the wounded soldiers, the captured prisoners, the defeated Southerners. Little wonder that he was overwhelmed at times by a profound sadness that...
Largely to gain Nellie’s approbation, Will began to carry a book as a matter of course. Trollope is a great favorite of mine because of the realistic every day tone which one finds in every line he wr...
It soon became clear, however, that Abraham Lincoln would emerge the undisputed captain of this most unusual cabinet, truly a team of rivals. The powerful competitors who had originally disdained Linc...
It is no limitation upon property rights or freedom of contract, he noted, to require that when men receive from government the privilege of doing business under corporate form, they assume an obligat...
In the age-old debate about whether leadership traits are innate or developed, memory—the ease and capacity with which the mind stores information—is generally considered an inborn trait.
In less than half a dozen years, seemingly from nothing and from nowhere, he had risen to become a respected leader in the state legislature, a central figure in the fight for internal improvements, a...
If you are cast on a desert island with only a screwdriver, a hatchet, and a chisel to make a boat with, why, go make the best one you can. It would be better if you had a saw, but you haven’t. So wit...
If the problems created by the industrial age were left unattended, Roosevelt cautioned, America would eventually be sundered by those dreadful lines of division that set the haves and the have-nots a...
If Roosevelt were given another chance to lead the country, he intended to make the Republican Party once more the progressive party of Abraham Lincoln, to restore the fellow feeling, mutual respect,...
I thereby learned the invaluable lesson that in the practical activities of life no man can render the highest service unless he can act in combination with his fellows, which means a certain amount o...
His fierce determination to escape an invalid’s fate led him to transform his body and timid demeanor through strenuous work; Taft, on the other hand, blessed from birth with robust health, would allo...
He spurred the Whig-dominated state legislature to pass a series of antislavery laws affirming the rights of black citizens against seizure by Southern agents, guaranteeing a trial by jury for any per...
Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition, he wrote. I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem.
Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition, he wrote. I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succee...
Eleanor had been unable to share in her husband’s optimism; she had worried constantly about what America would look like after the fighting stopped, whether the liberal and humane values which had an...
Discipline and keen insight had once again served Lincoln most effectively. By regulating his emotions and resisting the impulse to strike back at Chase when the circular first became known, he gained...
Chase has fallen into two bad habits… . He thinks he has become indispensable to the country… . He also thinks he ought to be President; he has no doubt whatever about that. These two unfortunate tend...
As governor general of the Philippines, Taft had welcomed every political group at Malacañan Palace, making it a rule never to pay any attention to personal squabbles and differences.
As Roosevelt took his place in the open carriage leading the procession, an additional surprise lay in store for him: 150 members of his Rough Rider unit, whom he had led so brilliantly in the Spanish...
Temporizing