History Quote by Joseph J. Ellis

“As we look over the list of the early leaders of the republic, Washington, John Adams, Hamilton, and others, we discern that they were…

— James Truslow Adams

Uncritical reverence for the Founding Fathers was less ubiquitous while they actually lived. . . . "The Reign of Terror that raged in America…

— Thomas Paine

“The idea that the president has the power to craft a new strategy both overstates his power and understates the power of reality crafted…

— George Friedman

When you look at the development of the American presidency, you see that the presidents who have had the greatest impact are the ones…

— H. W. Brands

“[John] Adams saw clearly that politics is the indispensable foundation for things elegant and beautiful. First and above all else, you must secure life,…

— Charles Krauthammer

Presidents grow up in the White House. The times shape the man.

— Thomas Friedman

Historians sometimes view presidents very differently from the way the public did at the time. Sometimes they don't.

— Michael Beschloss

[John] Adams's perception of Europe, and especially France, was clearly different than [Tomas] Jefferson's. For Jefferson, the luxury and sophistication of Europe only made…

— Gordon S. Wood

“Writing to his son in 1799, John Adams blamed America’s political turmoil on “a systematical dissolution of the true Family Authority. There can never…

— Alan Taylor

“Jackson was a transformative president in part because he had a transcendent personality; other presidents who followed him were not transformative, and served unremarkably.”

— Jon Meacham

[ Massachusetts constitution] was [John Adams] attempt to justify that structure by the traditional notion of social estates - that the executive represented the…

— Gordon S. Wood

“Long habit had accustomed the American people to the notion of a party in power, and of a President as its creature and organ,…

— James Russell Lowell