227 Quotes by Jon Meacham

It is,” TR said, “a base outrage to oppose a man because of his religion or birthplace, and all good citizens will hold any such effort in abhorrence.

From Jefferson to Jackson to Lincoln to FDR to Reagan, every great president inspires enormous affection and enormous hostility. We’ll all be much saner, I think, if we remember that history is full of surprises and things that seemed absolutely certain one day are often unimaginable the next.

In their parents, children ideally have sources of protection and comfort and love. Parents can also be sources of irritation, fear, and anxiety. Their deaths thus represent both loss and liberation.

One of the earliest resurrection scenes in the Bible is that of Thomas demanding evidence – he wanted to see, to touch, to prove. Those who question and probe and debate are heirs of the apostles just as much as the most fervent of believers.

Once the cry and the cause of a generation of progressives to make America safer, fairer and cleaner, ‘regulation’ is now a dirty word in our politics. Even Democrats are quick to talk about cutting regulations; Republicans hate them with – how to put it? – evangelical fervor.

Jackson was a transformative president in part because he had a transcendent personality; other presidents who followed him were not transformative, and served unremarkably.

The decline and fall of the modern religious right’s notion of a Christian America creates a calmer political environment and, for many believers, may help open the way for a more theologically serious religious life.

An important thing to remember about the press is there is no ideological bias.

I’ll tell you what leadership is. It’s persuasion – and conciliation – and education – and patience. It’s long, slow, tough work. That’s the only kind of leadership I know – or believe in – or will practice.