H. W. Brands Quotes
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The nature of revolutions is to sweep the reluctant along.
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Clemens’s loss was literature’s gain. Forced to earn his daily bread once more, he turned to mining in the Mother Lode country. He found little gold, but gathered impressions and experiences. He met Bret Harte, and guessed that if Harte could make money from stories about the gold country, so could he. He proved himself right with a tale about a jumping-frog contest in Calaveras County, which won him a wide and enthusiastic national readership.
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Reporter Jacob Riis made it his mission to expose the horrors of poverty in New York. New to working with a camera, his flash actually set the walls of One apartment inhabited by five blind people on fire.
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Indeed, the key to all diplomacy was knowing when they were serious about their threats and when they were posturing. Nations were like individuals, requiring cultivation and the paying of respect.
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It was a typical point, made in typical style, mixing pride and humility.
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Shiloh showed him what he could ask of his men, and indeed what he MUST ask of them.
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Both sides had more confidence in their opponents weaknesses than their own strength.
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The politics of the possible was being replaced by the politics of purity.
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In imperial relationships, getting out proves much more complicated than getting in.
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The very lack of explicit pressure was itself a compelling force, for it created a world in which the expectation of success was simply there, a fact of life as basic as breakfast.
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I believe my mother was smart enough to know that in the night, you are willing to tell all. If she waited until the next day, she knew she'd get one-syllable answers.
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Such was the code: Strive for victory, but never seem to be self-involved.