Joseph J. Ellis

“Perhaps, in that eerily instinctive way in which he always grasped the difference between the essential and the peripheral, he literally felt…

— Joseph J. Ellis

“Upon learning that Washington intended to reject the mantle of emperor, no less an authority than George III allegedly observed, “If he…

— Joseph J. Ellis

“The Adams presidency, in fact, might be the classic example of the historical truism that inherited circumstances define the parameters within which…

— Joseph J. Ellis

“p. 274 ...his trademark decision to surrender power as commander in chief and then president, was not...a sign that he had conquered…

— Joseph J. Ellis

To my three sons, Peter, Scott, and Alexander who pulled me from the 18th Century and back into the present on a…

— Joseph J. Ellis

Lincoln once said that America was founded on a proposition that was written by Jefferson in 1776. We are really founded on…

— Joseph J. Ellis

“They recognized from the beginning that they were a rare match. There were so many topics they could talk about easily and…

— Joseph J. Ellis

[quoting someone else] the American constitution is a document designed by geniuses to be eventually interpreted by idiots

— Joseph J. Ellis

I believe I am an honorable man.

— Joseph J. Ellis

“The first symptom of the trouble appeared when Madison studied Hamilton’s proposal for the funding of the domestic debt. On the one…

— Joseph J. Ellis

“But if insecurity was the primal source of Hamilton's incredibly energy, one would have to conclude that providence had conspired to produce…

— Joseph J. Ellis

“One of the petitioners, an infamous do-gooder of uncertain sanity named Warner Mifflin, had actually acknowledged that his antislavery vision came to…

— Joseph J. Ellis

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

— Joseph J. Ellis

And the only thing to do with a sin is to confess, do penance and then, after some kind of decent interval,…

— 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…

— Joseph J. Ellis

“First, it is crucial to recognize that Washington’s extraordinary reputation rested less on his prudent exercise of power than on his dramatic…

— Joseph J. Ellis

“In Jefferson's mind great historical leaps forward were almost always the product of a purging, which freed societies from the accumulated debris…

— Joseph J. Ellis

“First, the achievement of the revolutionary generation was a collective enterprise that succeeded because of the diversity of personalities and ideologies present…

— Joseph J. Ellis

“Lamentations about the tribulations of public life, followed by celebrations of the bucolic splendor of retirement to rural solitude, had become a…

— Joseph J. Ellis

“In psychological terms, he was neurotic and she was uncommonly sane. His inevitable eruptions would not threaten the marriage, because she was…

— Joseph J. Ellis

“Having now finished the work assigned me,” Washington solemnly said, “I retire from the great theatre of Action. . . . I…

— Joseph J. Ellis

Grand visions, even those as prescient as Washington's, must nevertheless negotiate the damnable particularities that history in the short run tosses up…

— Joseph J. Ellis

“In addition, the most reliable and recent studies of African tribal culture demonstrated that slavery was a long-standing custom among the Africans…

— Joseph J. Ellis

“Antislavery idealists might prefer to live in some better world, which like all such places was too good to be true. The…

— Joseph J. Ellis

I deeply regret having let stand and later confirming the assumption that I went to Vietnam. For this and any other distortions…

— Joseph J. Ellis