“For political leaders in a democracy are not revolutionaries or leaders of creative thought. The best of them are those who respond wisely to changes and movements already under way. The worst, the least successful, are those who respond badly… — Doris Kearns Goodwin Copy Share Image
I write about presidents. That means I write about guys - so far. I'm interested in the people closest to them, the people they… — Doris Kearns Goodwin Copy Share Image
What I think I've learned is that you're never going to get it all right, and you can't obsess about having a fact wrong or a date wrong or something like that, as long as you tried as best you could. If you've done the kind of research that you're sure is pretty good, then you just have to have… — Doris Kearns Goodwin Copy Share
I wish we could go back to the time when the private lives of our public figures were relevant only if they directly affected… — Doris Kearns Goodwin Copy Share Image
People will love him (Theodore Roosevelt) for the enemies he has made. — Doris Kearns Goodwin Copy Share Image
“This extreme treatment was among the proliferating regimens developed in response to the stunning increase in nervous disorders diagnosed around the turn of the century. Commentators and clinicians cited a number of factors related to the stresses of modern civilization: the increased speed of communication facilitated by the telegraph and railroad; the “unmelodious” clamor of city life replacing the “rhythmical”… — Doris Kearns Goodwin Copy Share
“I could carve out of a banana a judge with more backbone than that,” — Doris Kearns Goodwin Copy Share Image
“And Lincoln, as would be evidenced throughout his presidency, was a master of timing.” — Doris Kearns Goodwin Copy Share Image
“Don’t hit till you have to; but, when you do hit, hit hard.” — Doris Kearns Goodwin Copy Share Image
“After ministering each day to the hundreds of young men who had endured ghastly wounds, submitted to amputations without anesthesia, and often died without… — Doris Kearns Goodwin Copy Share Image
The value that I found in interviewing was for an educational experience, just to know that history itself is subjective, that you can't say,… — Doris Kearns Goodwin Copy Share Image
Excitement about things became a habit, a part of my personality, and the expectation that I should enjoy new experiences often engendered the enjoyment… — Doris Kearns Goodwin Copy Share Image
“All the cartoonists at heart liked him, and there was seldom or never anything bitter or really unfriendly in their portrayals of him; they were uniformly good-natured.” Caricatures even transformed his failure during a mid-November bear hunt into a triumph, conjuring an image of the president steadfastly refusing to shoot a small bear furnished for the occasion. As renditions of… — Doris Kearns Goodwin Copy Share
