“On Christmas morning when I was a child, my mother would leave a book wrapped at the foot of the bed, which was a hint that Santa had come. It was also her way of keeping us in bed a little longer before we went downstairs. So I've always associated books with happiness and gifts. And they are. I can't get enough of them.” WayChildrenLittlesI CanBookEnoughMotherMorningFeetBedSantaHintsChristmas Morning Author:David McCullough
“I feel that history is in many ways the most important of all subjects because it is about everything and because it's about who we are and how we came to be the way we are.” WayFeelsImportantSubjectsWho We Are Author:David McCullough
“When you start to write, things begin to come into focus in a way they don't when you're not writing. It's a very good way to find out how much you don't know because you learn specifically what you need to know that you don't know at the moment by writing.” KnowsWayNeedsWritingMomentsFocusVery GoodGood Way Author:David McCullough
“Take the teacher not the course. Find out who the great professors are - the great teachers - and take their courses because a subject that you may not think you're interested in may turn out to be infinitely fascinating because of the way it's taught.” ThinkingWayMayTurnsCoursesTeacherSubjectsTaughtFascinatingProfessorsGreat Teacher Author:David McCullough
“I want people to see that all-important time in a different way-in the way it was. For of a number of reasons, including the absence of photographs, we tend to see the men and women of the Revolution as not quite real. And we have far too little sense of what they suffered.” PeopleMenWayWantLittlesImportantDifferentRealReasonNumbersHe ManRevolutionMen And WomenIncludingPhotographAbsenceDifferent Ways Author:David McCullough
“I am adamant that we must not cut back on funding of the teaching of the arts in the schools: music, painting, theater, dance, all of it. The great thing about the arts is that the only way you learn how to do it is by doing it.” WayArtSchoolCuttingTeachingPaintingArt IsTheaterGreat ThingsFundingAdamant Author:David McCullough
“You can't learn to play the piano without playing the piano, you can't learn to write without writing, and, in many ways, you can't learn to think without thinking. Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard.” ThinkingWayWritingWellsHardPlayPiano Author:David McCullough
“We all know the old expression, "I'll work my thoughts out on paper." There's something about the pen that focuses the brain in a way that nothing else does. That is why we must have more writing in the schools, more writing in all subjects, not just in English classes.” KnowsWayWritingDoeSchoolBrainClassSubjectsExpressionPaperPensMy ThoughtsEnglish Class Author:David McCullough
“The talent, including the talent for history - and I do think there are people who just have a talent for it, the way you have a talent for public speaking or music or whatever - it shouldn't be allowed to lie dormant. It should be brought alive.” PeopleThinkingWayShouldLyingAliveTalentIncludingPublic SpeakingDormant Author:David McCullough
“One of the things about the arts that is so important is that in the arts you discover the only way to learn how to do it is by doing it. You can't write by reading a book about it. The only way to learn how to write a book is to sit down and try to write a book” WayWritingTryingArtImportantBookReadingDown And Author:David McCullough
“History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.” WayHistoryInsightGuidesWho We AreNavigationGreat HistoryPerilous Times Author:David McCullough
“Any nation that expects to be ignorant and free," Jefferson said, "expects what never was and never will be." And if the gap between the educated and the uneducated in America continues to grow as it is in our time, as fast as or faster than the gap between the rich and the poor, the gap between the educated and the uneducated is going to be of greater consequence and the more serious threat to our way of life. We must not, by any means, misunderstand that.” IfsWayMeanSaidAmericaNationsGrowsPoorRichGreaterSeriousConsequenceThreatIgnorantEducatedFasterOur TimeGapsUneducated Author:David McCullough
“I had been writing for about twelve years. I knew pretty well how you could find things out, but I had never been trained in an academic way how to go about the research.” WayWritingYearsWellsResearchAcademicTwelve Author:David McCullough
“To me history ought to be a source of pleasure. It isn't just part of our civic responsibility. To me it's an enlargement of the experience of being alive, just the way literature or art or music is.” WayArtLiteraturePleasureResponsibilityAliveSourceOughtMusic IsLive ByCivicsCivic DutyEnlargementCivic Responsibility Author:David McCullough
“History is not just about dates and quotations. And it's not just about politics, the military and social issues, though much of it of course is about that. It's about everything. It's about life history. It's human. And we have to see it that way. We have to teach it that way. We have to read it that way. It's about art, music, literature, money, science, love - the human experience.” WayHumansArtCoursesLiteratureSocialTeachIssuesMilitaryQuotationsHuman ExperienceSocial IssuesArt MusicScience Love Author:David McCullough
