Joseph J. Ellis

“Burr had the dark and severe coloring of his Edwards ancestry, with black hair receding from the forehead and dark brown, almost black, eyes that suggested a cross between an eagle and a raven. Hamilton had a light peaches and cream complexion with violet-blue eyes and auburn-red hair, all of which came together to suggest an animated beam of light to Burr’s somewhat stationary shadow.”

“One-year enlistment had proven problematic since the troops were scheduled to rotate out of the army just when they had begun to internalize the discipline of military service and became reliable soldiers.”

“Even in the best of lives, mistakes are made.”

“It is as if Clinton had called one of the most respected character witnesses in all of U.S. history to testify that the primal urge has a most distinguished presidential pedigree.”

“If he (John Adams) could not control events, he could at least record them for posterity – perhaps the ultimate form of control.”

“They were trying to orchestrate a revolution, which almost by definition generated a sense of collective trauma that defied any semblance of coherence and control. If we wish to rediscover the psychological context of the major players in Philadelphia, we need to abandon our hindsight omniscience and capture their mentality as they negotiated the unknown.”

“And the only thing to do with a sin is to confess, do penance and then, after some kind of decent interval, ask for forgiveness.”

“Because he could not afford to fail, he could not afford to trust.”

“To my three sons, Peter, Scott, and Alexander who pulled me from the 18th Century and back into the present on a regular basis and therefore made me a better person, thank you. And to my wife, who sits at the table there. Who is right about almost everything.”

“I would say readers can trust my work more than anyone else's.”

“Some models of self-control are able to achieve their serenity easily because the soul fires never burn brightly to begin with.”

“The fledgling and ragtag American army turned its state into a semi-plausible advantage, encouraging enlistees to wear their own "hunting shirts" to build on the reputation of frontier marksmen.”

“If you knew how the journey was going to end, you could afford to be patient along the path.”

“Lincoln once said that America was founded on a proposition that was written by Jefferson in 1776. We are really founded on an argument about what that proposition means.”

“I believe I am an honorable man.”