WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
John Lothrop Motley. a memoir — Volume 2 cover

John Lothrop Motley. a memoir — Volume 2

Chapter 9: ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
By Oliver Wendell Holmes
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

History - AmericanHistory - European

About This Book

The memoir recounts the subject's life during the early 1860s, describing residence in England, public defenses of the Union through long letters to a London newspaper, a return home, and an unexpected diplomatic appointment to Austria. Family letters and the author's correspondence record life at Vienna, including court and social customs, official dealings with Austrian ministers, involvement in negotiations over the Mexican expedition, and encounters with prominent statesmen such as Bismarck. Personal recollections convey patriotic commitment during the American civil conflict, efforts to influence European opinion, social routines in the imperial capital, and the emotional impact of Lincoln's assassination on friends and colleagues.

ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:

A great historian is almost a statesman
Admired or despised, as if he or she were our contemporary
Alas! one never knows when one becomes a bore
American Unholy Inquisition
best defence in this case is little better than an impeachment
But after all this isn't a war It is a revolution
Can never be repaired and never sufficiently regretted
Considerations of state as a reason
Considerations of state have never yet failed the axe
Everything else may happen This alone must happen
Fortune's buffets and rewards can take with equal thanks
He was not always careful in the construction of his sentences
In revolutions the men who win are those who are in earnest
Irresistible force in collision with an insuperable resistance
It is n't strategists that are wanted so much as believers
John Quincy Adams
Manner in which an insult shall be dealt with
Motley was twice sacrificed to personal feelings
No man is safe (from news reporters)
Our mortal life is but a string of guesses at the future
Played so long with other men's characters and good name
Progress should be by a spiral movement
Public which must have a slain reputation to devour
Reasonable to pay our debts rather than to repudiate them
Recall of a foreign minister for alleged misconduct in office
Shall Slavery die, or the great Republic?
Suicide is confession
The nation is as much bound to be honest as is the individual
This Somebody may have been one whom we should call Nobody
Unequivocal policy of slave emancipation
Wringing a dry cloth for drops of evidence

[The End]