Too rigid specialization is almost as bad for a historian's mind, and for his ultimate reputation, as too early an indulgence in broad generalization and synthesis. Samuel Eliot Morison More Quotes by Samuel Eliot Morison More Quotes From Samuel Eliot Morison Intellectual honesty is the quality that the public in free countries always has expected of historians; much more than that it does not expect, nor often get. Samuel Eliot Morison honestyintellectualcountry Franklin may . . . be considered one of the founding fathers of American democracy, since no democratic government can last long without conciliation and compromise. Samuel Eliot Morison governmentlongfather If a lecturer, he wishes to be heard; if a writer, to be read. He always hopes for a public beyond that of the long-suffering wife. Samuel Eliot Morison wifesufferinglong So I have cultivated the vast garden of human experience which is history, without troubling myself overmuch about laws, essential first causes, or how it is all coming out. Samuel Eliot Morison aquariumsgardenlaw A tough but nervous, tenacious but restless race [the Yankees]; materially ambitious, yet prone to introspection, and subject to waves of religious emotion. . . . A race whose typical member is eternally torn between a passion for righteousness and a desire to get on in the world. Samuel Eliot Morison yankeespassionreligious Military and absolutist regimes are undoubtedly well fitted to get the jump on an unsuspecting or unprepared enemy; but the history of modern warfare proves that they cannot win over representative governments in the long run, provided that people behind those governments have the heart to sustain initial punishment, and both the will and the resources to fight back. Samuel Eliot Morison militaryheartrunning
