Nathaniel philbrick Quotes - QuotesSweet | quotesweet.com

Author: Nathaniel Philbrick
Quotes of Author: Nathaniel Philbrick

Nathaniel Philbrick _ In the Heart of the Sea: The
To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me.
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Nathaniel Philbrick _ Why Read Moby-Dick?
To be in the presence of a great leader is to know a blighted soul who has managed to make the darkness work for him. Ishmael says it best: "For all men tragically great are made so through a certain morbidness. Be sure of this, O young ambition, all mortal greatness is but a disease." In chapter 36, "The Quarter-Deck," Melville show us how susceptible we ordinary people are to the seductive power of a great and demented man.
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Nathaniel Philbrick _ Why Read Moby-Dick?
This is where Melville is perhaps the most profound in his portrait of Ahab as the demagogue and dictator. In the end, even the fiercest of tyrants is done in, not by his own sad, used-up self, but by his enablers, the so-called professionals, who keep whispering in his ear."p.105
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Nathaniel Philbrick _ Valiant Ambition: George
As Arnold had demonstrated, the real enemy was not Great Britain, but those Americans who sought to undercut their fellow citizens' commitment to one another. Whether it was Joseph Reed's willingness to promote his state's interests at the expense of what was best for the country as a whole or Arnold's decision to sell his loyalty to the highest bidder, the greatest danger to America's future came from self-serving opportunism masquerading as patriotism.
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Nathaniel Philbrick _ Why Read Moby-Dick?
As Starbuck discovers, simply being a good guy with a positive worldview is not enough to stop a force of nature like Ahab, who feeds on the fears and hatreds in us all.
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Nathaniel Philbrick _ In the Hurricane's Eye: The
THAT SPRING WASHINGTON received a letter from Lafayette, who had long since returned to France. Now that peace was looking like a certainty, he had a "wild scheme" to propose: the two of them should buy a small plantation together and "try the experiment to free the Negroes and use them only as tenants. Such an example as yours might render it a general practice." Lafayette's time in Virginia had given him a firsthand knowledge of the horrifying realities of southern slavery. He still loved Washington like a father, but something needed to be done to ensure that the promise of the Declaration of Independence-"liberty and justice for all"-applied to all Americans, no matter what their skin color.
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Nathaniel Philbrick _ Valiant Ambition: George
In an October 6 letter to Lord Stirling, he set forth the principle that would guide his increasingly sophisticated intelligence-gathering efforts. "As we are often obliged to reason the designs of the enemy from the appearances which come under our own observation and the information of our spies," Washington wrote, "we cannot be too attentive to these things which may afford us new light. Every minutia should have a place in our collection. For things of a seemingly trifling nature when conjoined with others of a more serious cast may lead to very valuable conclusions."But as Washington was to learn to his great regret, sometimes what were to become "the designs of the enemy" were developing in plain sight.
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Nathaniel Philbrick _ Valiant Ambition George
Midshipman Edward Pellew was in the British boat right behind Arnold's. The American general had escaped, but in his haste he had left behind his stock and buckle, which Pellew took as a keepsake. Years later, by which time Pellew had become the much-decorated admiral Viscount Exmouth, he could not help but wonder how differently the War of Independence might have turned out if on that cold autumn day near the southern tip of Lake Champlain he had captured Benedict Arnold.
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Nathaniel Philbrick _ Valiant Ambition: George
You are fighting for what you can never obtain, and we are defending what we never mean to part with.
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Nathaniel Philbrick _ The Last Stand: Custer,
By the 1770s, the Teton Sioux had overrun the Arikara, or Ree, on the Missouri River and made it as far west as the Black Hills, where they quickly ousted the Kiowa and the Crows. Over the next hundred years the Sioux continued to expand their territory, eventually forcing the Crows to retreat all the way to the Bighorn River more than two hundred miles to the west, while also carrying on raids to the north and south against the Assiniboine, Shoshone, Pawnee, Gros Ventre, and Omaha.
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Nathaniel Philbrick _ Valiant Ambition: George
Suppose it were possible to conceive that a president and council of one of the united states were the persons with whom those other means have been used-what would be the line of conduct they would probably pursue . . . ? Would it not be to divide the people by every means in their power; to lessen the reputation and consequently the weight and authority of the great council of the United States; to poison the minds of the people and prejudice them against Congress by misrepresentation of facts and publications calculated to deceive; to seize every occasion of quarreling with Congress, and endeavor to bring the other states and particularly the legislature of their own into the dispute; to labor to damn the reputation of . . . general officers of the army, not sparing those of their own state whom they cannot hope to influence, especially such as are distinguished for their spirit and bravery; and if they cannot effect their purpose to disparage their past services, pour upon them a torrent of abuse with a gentle salvo of "as it is reported and believed"; and to . . . alienate the inhabitants of their own state from the service by representing military discipline as degrading to freemen; . . . to leave the defenses of their country unguarded and unrepaired, that the enemy may meet with no opposition, in case they think proper to attack or invade it, etc.
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Nathaniel Philbrick _ The Last Stand: Custer,
Custer did not drink; he didn't have to. His emotional effusions unhinged his judgment in ways that went far beyond alcohol's ability to interfere with clear thinking.
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