206 Quotes by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Roosevelt insisted that politics was not a proper occupation. As a citizen, one might intermittently engage in political activity but it would be a deadfall misfortune for a man to grow to feel that his whole livelihood and whole happiness depend upon his staying in office. Such a feeling prevents him from being of real service to the people while in office and all of it puts him under the heavy astrain to barter his conviction for the stake of holding office.

Go ahead, and fear not. You will have a full library at your service.

The same magazines which not long before advertised products which would quickly allow women to return to their war work now extolled elaborate recipes which women could attempt if they stayed home and vacated jobs for men.

The habit of mobility had become ingrained.

She feared that she would become a slave to superficial, symbolic duties.

As ever, books remained a medium through which Theodore and Edith connected and interpreted larger world.

Edith (the future Mrs. Teddy Roosevelt) developed a lifelong devotion to drama and poetry. "I have gone back to Shakespeare, as I always do," she would write seven decades later.

Why bother with fictional characters and plots when the world was full of more marvelous stories that were true, with characters so fresh, so powerful, so new, that they stepped from into the narratives under their own power?

Whereas Taft discouraged the young Yale student from extracurricular reading, fearful it would detract from required courses, Roosevelt read widely yet managed to stand near the top of his class. The breath of his numerous interests allowed him to draw on knowledge across various disciplines, from zoology in philosophy and religion, from poetry and drama to history and politics.