Samuel Eliot Morison Quotes

23 quotes in 500 categories

• The freedmen were not really free in 1865, nor are most of their descendants really free in 1965. Slavery was but one aspect of a…
• Dream dreams and write them aye, but live them first.
• Make no mistake; the American Revolution was not fought to obtain freedom, but to preserve the liberties that Americans already had as colonials. Independence was…
• America was discovered accidentally by a great seaman who was looking for something else; when discovered it was not wanted; and most of the exploration…
• The cruel policy initiated by Columbus and pursued by his successors resulted in complete genocide.
• If the European discovery had been delayed for a century or two, it is possible that the Aztec in Mexico or the Iroquois in North…
• If the American Revolution had produced nothing but the Declaration of Independence, it would have been worth while. . . . The beauty and cogency…
• But sea power has never led to despotism. The nations that have enjoyed sea power even for a brief period-Athens, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, England, the…
• Intellectual honesty is the quality that the public in free countries always has expected of historians; much more than that it does not expect, nor…
• The same contingencies of time and space that force a statesman or soldier to make decisions, impel the historian, though with less urgency, to make…
• Franklin may . . . be considered one of the founding fathers of American democracy, since no democratic government can last long without conciliation and…
• A tough but nervous, tenacious but restless race [the Yankees]; materially ambitious, yet prone to introspection, and subject to waves of religious emotion. . .…
• So I have cultivated the vast garden of human experience which is history, without troubling myself overmuch about laws, essential first causes, or how it…
• No big modern war has been won without preponderant sea power; and, conversely, very few rebellions of maritime provinces have succeeded without acquiring sea power.
• With honesty of purpose, balance, a respect for tradition, courage, and, above all, a philosophy of life, any young person who embraces the historical profession…
• If the American Revolution had produced nothing but the Declaration of Independence, it would have been worthwhile.
• He [Columbus] enjoyed long stretches of pure delight such as only a seaman may know, and moments of high, proud exultation that only a discoverer…
• A few hints as to literary craftsmanship may be useful to budding historians. First and foremost, get writing!
• Skepticism is an important historical tool. It is the starting point of all revision of hitherto accepted history.
• Historical methodology, as I see it, is a product of common sense applied to circumstances.

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