“The author describes megalomania as seen in Chairman Mao by saying that what he was familiar with, he was really familiar with. This zeal moved the megalomaniac with a complete lack of appreciation for what he DID NOT know.” — David Halberstam Copy Share Image
“Theodore Sorensen wrote for [Robert Kennedy's 1968] announcement speech: “At stake is not simply the leadership of our party, and even our own country, it is our right to the moral leadership of this planet.” The sentence absolutely appalled all the younger Robert Kennedy advisers, who felt it smacked of just the kind of attitude which had gotten us into… — David Halberstam Copy Share
“For there was no doubt in Bundy’s mind about his ability to handle... the world. The job was not just a happenstance thing; he had, literally and figuratively, been bred for it, or failing this, Secretary of State. He was the brightest light in that glittering constellation around the President, for if those years had any central theme, if there… — David Halberstam Copy Share
Fear was the terrible secret of the battlefield and could afflict the brave as well as the timid. Worse it was contagious, and could… — David Halberstam Copy Share Image
“Fresh from the rarefied environments of Harvard, the author says he purposefully took journalism jobs in small southern towns so that he could learn… — David Halberstam Copy Share Image
“Because history became his (Keenan's) genuine passion, he tended to see the world in terms of deep historical forces that, in his mind, formed… — David Halberstam Copy Share Image
Being a professional means doing your job on the days you don't want to do it — David Halberstam Copy Share Image
“Most journalists are impatient to get their legwork done and to start the actual writing” — David Halberstam Copy Share Image
“Day after day we read about them, each new man more brilliant than the last. They were not just an all-star first team, but an all-star second team as well. There were counts kept on how many Rhodes scholars there were in the Administration, how many books by members of the new Administration (even the Postmaster, J. Edward Day, had… — David Halberstam Copy Share
If there is anything that is important to America, it is that you are not a prisoner of the past. — David Halberstam Copy Share Image
During their college years the oarsmen put in terrbily long hours, often showing up at the boathouse at 6:00am for preclass practices. Both physically and psychologically, they were separated from their classmates. Events that seemed earth-shattering to them-- for example, who was demoted from the varsity to the junior varsity -- went almost unnoticed by the rest of the students.… — David Halberstam Copy Share
“The good reporters of that era, those who were well educated and who were enlightened themselves and worked for enlightened organizations, liked the Kennedys and were for the same things the Kennedys were for. In addition, the particular nature of the President’s personal style, his ease and confidence with reporters, his considerable skill in utilizing television, and the terrible manner… — David Halberstam Copy Share
“true wisdom ... is the product of hard-won, often bitter experience.” — David Halberstam Copy Share Image
