David McCullough Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.”

“A nation that forgets its past can function no better than an individual with amnesia.”

“I work very hard on the writing, writing and rewriting and trying to weed out the lumber.”

“I just thank my father and mother, my lucky stars, that I had the advantage of an education in the humanities.”

“May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.”

“To me history ought to be a source of pleasure. It isn't just part of our civic responsibility. To me it's an enlargement of the experience of being alive, just the way literature or art or music is.”

“I'm drawn particularly to stories that evolve out of the character of the protagonist.”

“There's an awful temptation to just keep on researching. There comes a point where you just have to stop, and start writing.”

“I had been writing for about twelve years. I knew pretty well how you could find things out, but I had never been trained in an academic way how to go about the research.”

“When I read that the British army had landed thirty-two thousand troops - and I had realized, not very long before, that Philadelphia only had thirty thousand people in it - it practically lifted me out of my chair.”