55 Quotes by David Pietrusza

The political mind is the product of men in public life who have been twice spoiled. They have been spoiled with praise and they have been spoiled with abuse. – Calvin Coolidge

Eleanor Roosevelt on the changes in John F. Kennedy that led her to drop her opposition to his nomination for president: "He has the qualities of a scholar, and a sense of history. I had the feeling that he was the man who can learn. I like him better than I ever had before because he seemed so little caulk-sure, and I think he has a mind that is open to new ideas.

Jousting with an obvious hoodlum couldn't hurt.

No matter what office LBJ assumed he lifted greater than when he found it.

In front of an audience of Protestant clergy, the Catholic JFK "was drawing strength from his vulnerability.

Henry Cabot Lodge was like medicine, good for you, but hard to take. – Teddy White

Be civilized. Grudges are for Neanderthals. – Hubert Humphrey

In the 1960 campaign, Arthur Schlesinger wrote of Adlai Stevenson, who already lost twice as the party's presidential nominee, "He has been away from power too long; he gives me an odd sense of unreality, a certain frivolity, distractedness, over-interest in words and phrases.

Woodrow Wilson intimate Edward House urged that his boss never first be approached by argument. Instead, the President could be made most receptive by laying a groundwork of 'common hatred".