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Writing Is Not The Easiest Way To Make A Living. Your Work Long Hours, Usually All By Yourself. It Is Not A Way To Make Money.

-Stephen Ambrose

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Writing Is Not The

Stephen Ambrose

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Writing Is Not The Easiest Way To Make A Living. Your Work Long Hours, Usually All By Yourself. It Is Not A Way To Make Money.

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In America, Jefferson Noted With Approval, Women Knew Their Place.

Eisenhower Had The Clearest Blue Eyes. He Would Fix Them On You. In My Every Interview With Him, He Would Lock His Eyes On To Mine And Keep Them There.

Eisenhower Is My Choice As The American Of The 20th Century. Of All The Men I've Studied And Written About, He Is The Brightest And The Best.

In 1945, There Were More People Killed, More Buildings Destroyed, More High Explosives Set Off, More Fires Burning Than Before Or Since.

I Think It's Just That The Private Lives Of Our Public Leaders Are So Much More Exposed Today That If You're Sensitive To Protecting Your Family, It's Much Harder To Not Get Defensive When Somebody Asks You Those Really Rude Questions About What Your Wife And Your Children Are Thinking And Feeling At That Exact Moment.

The Great Wars Of The 20th Century Made It Into The Worst Century Ever.

As To The Indians, The Guiding Principle Was, Promise Them Anything Just So Long As They Get Out Of The Way.

Guiding Principles

In One Of His Last Newsletters, Mike Ranney Wrote: "in Thinking Back On The Days Of Easy Company, I'm Treasuring My Remark To A Grandson Who Asked, 'grandpa, Were You A Hero In The War?' No,'" I Answered, 'but I Served In A Company Of Heroes.

Writing Is Not The Easiest Way To Make A Living. Your Work Long Hours, Usually All By Yourself. It Is Not A Way To Make Money.

Almost Everything Truman Did In Foreign Affairs I Approve Of.

Foreign Affairs

Trial By Jury. Live Wherever You Can Make A Living. How Could A Government Based On Such Principles Fail?

The American Constitution Is The Greatest Governing Document, And At Some 7,000 Words, Just About The Shortest.

Almost Everything Truman Did In Foreign Affairs I Approve Of.

Foreign Affairs

Dams Have Harmed Our Wildlife And Made Rivers Less Useful For Recreation.

In One Of His Last Newsletters, Mike Ranney Wrote: "in Thinking Back On The Days Of Easy Company, I'm Treasuring My Remark To A Grandson Who Asked, 'grandpa, Were You A Hero In The War?' No,'" I Answered, 'but I Served In A Company Of Heroes.

We Know How To Win Wars. We Must Learn Now To Win Peace.

Even Before Watergate And His Resignation, Nixon Had Inspired Conflicting And Passionate Emotions.

Nothing Is Inevitable In Life. People Make Choices, And Those Choices Have Results, And We All Live With The Results.

Nothing Is Inevitable In Life. People Make Choices, And Those Choices Have Results, And We All Live With The Results.

Friendships Are Different From All Other Relationships. Unlike Acquaintanceship, Friendship Is Based On Love. Unlike Lovers And Married Couples, It Is Free Of Jealousy. Unlike Children And Parents, It Knows Neither Criticism Nor Resentment. Friendship Has No Status In Law. Business Partnerships Are Based On A Contract. So Is Marriage. Parents Are Bound By Law. But Friendships Are Freely Entered Into, Freely Given, And Freely Exercised.

American Corporations Hate To Give Away Money.

Like Their Predecessors, The Presidents Of Today Just Throw Up Their Hands.

To Have Some Parts Flowing Free Again . . . With Deer Grazing On Its Banks . . . Ducks And Geese Raising Their Young In The Backwaters . . . Eddies And Twists And Turns For Canoeists . . . And Fishing Opportunities Such As Lewis And Clark Enjoyed . . . Would Be The Finest Possible Tribute To The Men Of The Expedition, And A Priceless Gift For Our Children.

Reading Your Own Material Aloud Forces You To Listen.

Who Today Is Willing To Say That Texas And California And The Remainder Of The Southwest Would Be Better Off If They Were Governed By Mexico?

Neighbors Are Far Better Acoustic Analyzers For Determining The Quality Of Their Life Versus Any Acoustic Instrument Left Unattended By An Expert.

There Are Many Rules Of Good Writing, But The Best Way To Find Them Is To Be A Good Reader.

To Have Some Parts Flowing Free Again . . . With Deer Grazing On Its Banks . . . Ducks And Geese Raising Their Young In The Backwaters . . . Eddies And Twists And Turns For Canoeists . . . And Fishing Opportunities Such As Lewis And Clark Enjoyed . . . Would Be The Finest Possible Tribute To The Men Of The Expedition, And A Priceless Gift For Our Children.

I Think That The Opportunity To Improve Race Relations In The United States Has Been Put Off Temporarily.

It Is Through History That We Learn Who We Are And How We Got That Way, Why And How We Changed, Why The Good Sometimes Prevailed And Sometimes Did Not.

There Are Many More Want-to-be Writers Out There Than Good Editors.

Washington, Not Jefferson, Freed His Slaves Upon His Death.

I Think That The Opportunity To Improve Race Relations In The United States Has Been Put Off Temporarily.

American Is The First Democratic Nation-state.

We Are Part Of A Country That Outshines Those That Have Gone Before Us And Most Of Those In Existence Today.

I'm No Politician. I'm An Historian Who Has Learned Through A Lifetime Of Studying That Nothing In The World Beats Universal Education.

Friendships Are Different From All Other Relationships. Unlike Acquaintanceship, Friendship Is Based On Love. Unlike Lovers And Married Couples, It Is Free Of Jealousy. Unlike Children And Parents, It Knows Neither Criticism Nor Resentment. Friendship Has No Status In Law. Business Partnerships Are Based On A Contract. So Is Marriage. Parents Are Bound By Law. But Friendships Are Freely Entered Into, Freely Given, And Freely Exercised.

Nixon Regarded Himself As Having Been Cheated By Life. He Never Got My Vote.

D-day Represents The Greatest Achievement Of The American People And System In The 20th Century. It Was The Pivot Point Of The 20th Century. It Was The Day On Which The Decision Was Made As To Who Was Going To Rule In This World In The Second Half Of The 20th Century. Is It Going To Be Nazism, Is It Going To Be Communism, Or Are The Democracies Going To Prevail?

In The Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries You Have These Great Nation States Hurling Their Young Men At One Another. The Victory Was Really Going To Rest On Who Could Do The Best Job Of Bringing Up Their Kids To Become Efficient And Effective Soldiers. That's Pretty Grandiose, I Guess, But I Do Think That, And Thank God It's Been The Armies Of Democracy That Have Emerged From This As The Triumphant Armies.

During The Second World War, The Germans Took Four Years To Build The Atlantic Wall. On Four Beaches It Held Up The Allies For About An Hour; At Omaha It Held Up The U.s. For Less Than One Day. The Atlantic Wall Must Therefore Be Regarded As One Of The Greatest Blunders In Military History.

Andrew Johnson Was A Southerner Generally Who Proclaimed That His Native State Of Tennessee Was A Country For White Men.

American Is The First Democratic Nation-state.

I Was Too Young For Korea And Too Old For Vietnam.

Johnson Had Been The Most Powerful Man In The World, Yet The North Vietnamese And The Vietcong Had Resisted, Overcome His Power, Broken His Will.

Within Easy Company They Had Made The Best Friends They Had Ever Had, Or Would Ever Have. They Were Prepared To Die For Each Other; More Important, They Were Prepared To Kill For Each Other.

I Was Taught By Professors Who Had Done Their Schooling In The 1930s. Most Of Them Were Scornful Of, Even Hated, Big Business.

Immigrants Do More Than Help Us Win Our Wars, Or Set Up Cleaning Shops Or Ethnic Restaurants.

Dams Have Harmed Our Wildlife And Made Rivers Less Useful For Recreation.

The More Sophisticated We Get, The More Advanced Our Buildings And Vehicles Become, The More Vulnerable We Are.

Washington And Jefferson Were Both Rich Virginia Planters, But They Were Never Friends.

In America, Jefferson Noted With Approval, Women Knew Their Place.

I've Always Tried To Be Fair To My Subjects. That's Easy When They Are As Likable And Admirable As Lewis And Clark, Or Eisenhower.

The American Constitution Is The Greatest Governing Document, And At Some 7,000 Words, Just About The Shortest.

Friends Never Cheat On Each Other, Or Take Advantage, Or Lie. Friends Do Not Spy On One Another, Yet They Have No Secrets. Friends Glory In Each Other's Successes And Are Downcast By The Failures. Friends Minister To Each Other, Nurse Each Other. Friends Give To Each Other, Worry About Each Other, Stand Always Ready To Help. Perfect Friendship Is Rarely Achieved, But At Its Height It Is An Ecstasy.

The War In Vietnam I Thought A Dreadful Mistake.

World War Ii, The Atomic Bomb, The Cold War, Made It Hard For Americans To Continue Their Optimism.

Neighbors Are Far Better Acoustic Analyzers For Determining The Quality Of Their Life Versus Any Acoustic Instrument Left Unattended By An Expert.

I Was Too Young For Korea And Too Old For Vietnam.

Who Today Is Willing To Say That Texas And California And The Remainder Of The Southwest Would Be Better Off If They Were Governed By Mexico?

There Are Many More Want-to-be Writers Out There Than Good Editors.

Johnson Had Been The Most Powerful Man In The World, Yet The North Vietnamese And The Vietcong Had Resisted, Overcome His Power, Broken His Will.

Oftentimes The Fascinating Thing Is That People Who Are Seen As Commanding Figures At The Moment That They Were Considered For President And Did Not Run Turned Out To Be Treated By History As Much More Minor Figures Politically.

The Canadians Have Managed To Live Peacefully With Their Indians. It Is Disgrace That The United States Has Not Done The Same.

History Is Everything That Has Ever Happened.

The Number One Secret Of Being A Successful Writer Is This: Marry An English Major.

My First Book Was The Book That Changed My Life.

Within Easy Company They Had Made The Best Friends They Had Ever Had, Or Would Ever Have. They Were Prepared To Die For Each Other; More Important, They Were Prepared To Kill For Each Other.

The Number One Secret Of Being A Successful Writer Is This: Marry An English Major.

Washington's Character Was Rock Solid. He Came To Stand For The New Nation And Its Republican Virtues, Which Was Why He Became Our First President By Unanimous Choice.

As To The Indians, The Guiding Principle Was, Promise Them Anything Just So Long As They Get Out Of The Way.

Guiding Principles

There Are Many Rules Of Good Writing, But The Best Way To Find Them Is To Be A Good Reader.

Washington And Jefferson Were Both Rich Virginia Planters, But They Were Never Friends.

The War In Vietnam I Thought A Dreadful Mistake.

Winning The Revolutionary War, Or The Civil War, Or World War Ii Were The Turning Points In Our History, The Sine Qua Non Of Our Forward Progress.

Immigrants Do More Than Help Us Win Our Wars, Or Set Up Cleaning Shops Or Ethnic Restaurants.

Winning The Revolutionary War, Or The Civil War, Or World War Ii Were The Turning Points In Our History, The Sine Qua Non Of Our Forward Progress.

I'm No Politician. I'm An Historian Who Has Learned Through A Lifetime Of Studying That Nothing In The World Beats Universal Education.

During The Second World War, The Germans Took Four Years To Build The Atlantic Wall. On Four Beaches It Held Up The Allies For About An Hour; At Omaha It Held Up The U.s. For Less Than One Day. The Atlantic Wall Must Therefore Be Regarded As One Of The Greatest Blunders In Military History.

At The Core, The American Citizen Soldiers Knew The Difference Between Right And Wrong, And They Didn't Want To Live In A World In Which Wrong Prevailed. So They Fought, And Won, And We All Of Us, Living And Yet To Be Born, Must Be Forever Profoundly Grateful.

In The 19th Century, We Devoted Our Best Minds To Exploring Nature. In The 20th Century, We Devoted Ourselves To Controlling And Harnessing It. In The 21st Century, We Must Devote Ourselves To Restoring It.

We Know How To Win Wars. We Must Learn Now To Win Peace.

In The 19th Century, We Devoted Our Best Minds To Exploring Nature. In The 20th Century, We Devoted Ourselves To Controlling And Harnessing It. In The 21st Century, We Must Devote Ourselves To Restoring It.

To Be A Slaveholder Meant One Had To Regard The African American As Inferior In Every Way.

African American

Washington's Character Was Rock Solid. He Came To Stand For The New Nation And Its Republican Virtues, Which Was Why He Became Our First President By Unanimous Choice.

Eisenhower Had The Clearest Blue Eyes. He Would Fix Them On You. In My Every Interview With Him, He Would Lock His Eyes On To Mine And Keep Them There.

We Are Part Of A Country That Outshines Those That Have Gone Before Us And Most Of Those In Existence Today.

D-day Represents The Greatest Achievement Of The American People And System In The 20th Century. It Was The Pivot Point Of The 20th Century. It Was The Day On Which The Decision Was Made As To Who Was Going To Rule In This World In The Second Half Of The 20th Century. Is It Going To Be Nazism, Is It Going To Be Communism, Or Are The Democracies Going To Prevail?

Jefferson Owned Slaves. He Did Not Believe That All Were Created Equal. He Was A Racist.

Crazy Horse Saw History As Integrated In The Present, Incorporated Into Daily Life.

Writing Is Not The Easiest Way To Make A Living. Your Work Long Hours, Usually All By Yourself. It Is Not A Way To Make Money.

When Hitler Declared War On The United States, He Was Betting That German Soldiers, Raised Up In The Hitler Youth, Would Always Out Fight American Soldiers, Brought Up In The Boy Scouts. He Lost That Bet. The Boy Scouts Had Been Taught How To Figure Their Way Out Of Their Own Problems.

In 1945, There Were More People Killed, More Buildings Destroyed, More High Explosives Set Off, More Fires Burning Than Before Or Since.

In The Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries You Have These Great Nation States Hurling Their Young Men At One Another. The Victory Was Really Going To Rest On Who Could Do The Best Job Of Bringing Up Their Kids To Become Efficient And Effective Soldiers. That's Pretty Grandiose, I Guess, But I Do Think That, And Thank God It's Been The Armies Of Democracy That Have Emerged From This As The Triumphant Armies.

The Past Is A Source Of Knowledge, And The Future Is A Source Of Hope. Love Of The Past Implies Faith In The Future.

Nixon Regarded Himself As Having Been Cheated By Life. He Never Got My Vote.

Lieutenant Welsh Remembered Walking Around Among The Sleeping Men, And Thinking To Himself That 'they Had Looked At And Smelled Death All Around Them All Day But Never Even Dreamed Of Applying The Term To Themselves. They Hadn't Come Here To Fear. They Hadn't Come To Die. They Had Come To Win.

At The Core, The American Citizen Soldiers Knew The Difference Between Right And Wrong, And They Didn't Want To Live In A World In Which Wrong Prevailed. So They Fought, And Won, And We All Of Us, Living And Yet To Be Born, Must Be Forever Profoundly Grateful.

Like Their Predecessors, The Presidents Of Today Just Throw Up Their Hands.

My Favorite Book Is The Last One Printed, Which Is Always Better Than Those That Were Published Earlier.

The Holocaust Was The Most Evil Crime Ever Committed.

Crazy Horse Saw History As Integrated In The Present, Incorporated Into Daily Life.

Oftentimes The Fascinating Thing Is That People Who Are Seen As Commanding Figures At The Moment That They Were Considered For President And Did Not Run Turned Out To Be Treated By History As Much More Minor Figures Politically.

It Is Through History That We Learn Who We Are And How We Got That Way, Why And How We Changed, Why The Good Sometimes Prevailed And Sometimes Did Not.

American Corporations Hate To Give Away Money.

I Was Taught By Professors Who Had Done Their Schooling In The 1930s. Most Of Them Were Scornful Of, Even Hated, Big Business.

It Would Not Be Possible To Praises Nurses Too Highly.

Jefferson Owned Slaves. He Did Not Believe That All Were Created Equal. He Was A Racist.

Washington, Not Jefferson, Freed His Slaves Upon His Death.

I Thought Nixon Was The Worst President We Had Ever Had, Save Only Perhaps Andrew Johnson.

Even Before Watergate And His Resignation, Nixon Had Inspired Conflicting And Passionate Emotions.

My First Book Was The Book That Changed My Life.

You Don't Hate History, You Hate The Way It Was Taught To You In High School.

When Hitler Declared War On The United States, He Was Betting That German Soldiers, Raised Up In The Hitler Youth, Would Always Out Fight American Soldiers, Brought Up In The Boy Scouts. He Lost That Bet. The Boy Scouts Had Been Taught How To Figure Their Way Out Of Their Own Problems.

Reading Your Own Material Aloud Forces You To Listen.

The More Sophisticated We Get, The More Advanced Our Buildings And Vehicles Become, The More Vulnerable We Are.

Friends Never Cheat On Each Other, Or Take Advantage, Or Lie. Friends Do Not Spy On One Another, Yet They Have No Secrets. Friends Glory In Each Other's Successes And Are Downcast By The Failures. Friends Minister To Each Other, Nurse Each Other. Friends Give To Each Other, Worry About Each Other, Stand Always Ready To Help. Perfect Friendship Is Rarely Achieved, But At Its Height It Is An Ecstasy.

You Don't Hate History, You Hate The Way It Was Taught To You In High School.

It Would Not Be Possible To Praises Nurses Too Highly.

History Is Everything That Has Ever Happened.

I Think It's Just That The Private Lives Of Our Public Leaders Are So Much More Exposed Today That If You're Sensitive To Protecting Your Family, It's Much Harder To Not Get Defensive When Somebody Asks You Those Really Rude Questions About What Your Wife And Your Children Are Thinking And Feeling At That Exact Moment.

My Favorite Book Is The Last One Printed, Which Is Always Better Than Those That Were Published Earlier.

Andrew Johnson Was A Southerner Generally Who Proclaimed That His Native State Of Tennessee Was A Country For White Men.

The Great Wars Of The 20th Century Made It Into The Worst Century Ever.

The Canadians Have Managed To Live Peacefully With Their Indians. It Is Disgrace That The United States Has Not Done The Same.

Eisenhower Is My Choice As The American Of The 20th Century. Of All The Men I've Studied And Written About, He Is The Brightest And The Best.

Lieutenant Welsh Remembered Walking Around Among The Sleeping Men, And Thinking To Himself That 'they Had Looked At And Smelled Death All Around Them All Day But Never Even Dreamed Of Applying The Term To Themselves. They Hadn't Come Here To Fear. They Hadn't Come To Die. They Had Come To Win.

The Holocaust Was The Most Evil Crime Ever Committed.

Trial By Jury. Live Wherever You Can Make A Living. How Could A Government Based On Such Principles Fail?

I've Always Tried To Be Fair To My Subjects. That's Easy When They Are As Likable And Admirable As Lewis And Clark, Or Eisenhower.

To Be A Slaveholder Meant One Had To Regard The African American As Inferior In Every Way.

African American

World War Ii, The Atomic Bomb, The Cold War, Made It Hard For Americans To Continue Their Optimism.

The Past Is A Source Of Knowledge, And The Future Is A Source Of Hope. Love Of The Past Implies Faith In The Future.

I Thought Nixon Was The Worst President We Had Ever Had, Save Only Perhaps Andrew Johnson.

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