"Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard." (Interview with NEH chairman Bruce Cole, Humanities, July/Aug. 2002, Vol. 23/No. 4)"

"History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are."

"Nothing ever invented provides such sustenance, such infinite reward for time spent, as a good book."

"If you get down about the state of American culture, just remember there are still more public libraries in this country than there are McDonalds."

"Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives. - John Adams"

"You can't be a full participant in our democracy if you don't know our history."

"When a friend of Abigail and John Adams was killed at Bunker Hill, Abigail's response was to write a letter to her husband and include these words, "My bursting heart must find vent at my pen."

"No harm's done to history by making it something someone would want to read." (The Course of Human Events, NEH Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities 2003)"

"The longer I live, the more I read, the more patiently I think and the more anxiously I inquire, the less I seem to know...do justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly. This is enough."