Ron Chernow Quotes

My next book is also set in the eighteenth century. It's about the Revolution, with the focus on the year 1776. It's about Washington and the army and the war. It's the nadir, the low point of the United States of America.

I had a visit from Mr. James Buchanan, Secretary of State. He told me that he had formerly visited my father at Quincy [MA], and said that in speaking to him of some of the Tories during our Revolutionary War, he said they were men of great respectability, fine talents, and excellent private character, but that they were all deplorably loyal—an epithet which Mr. Buchanan said had greatly diverted him.

Soldiers of the American Revolution fought that 18th century war with heavy muskets. In the early 20th century, we kids fought it every Fourth of July not only with exploding powder and shimmering flares, but with all of our senses.

John Quincy Adams most certainly was a part of the Revolutionary War era. He was a young boy, but he was actively involved.

There were people who said the Society of Cincinnati in the American revolution, of which George Washington was one of the shining lights, was a branch of the Illuminati.

In January 1776, Thomas Paine issued 'Common Sense,' advocating independence from Great Britain.

I would like to acquire a document autographed by John Witherspoon, who signed the Declaration of Independence and is one of my American heroes.

Measured by any standard, white or black, Washington must be regarded today as one of the great men of this country: and in the future he will be so honored.

Everything we know about Hamilton, we knew when he was alive, because he told us.

Then Anthony is mad, stark mad. Mad Anthony Wayne! Mad Anthony Wayne!

If Paul Revere were on his ride today, he would be tweeting.

Samuel Adams was truly the man of the Revolution.

When Washington visited Portsmouth in 1789, he was not much impressed by the architecture of the little town that had stood by him so stoutly in the struggle for independence.

It is hard for anyone who discovers George Washington not to write about him, perhaps because he is so hard to discover and such a surprise when you do.

George Washington’s brother, Lawrence, was the Uncle of Our Country.

Listen my children and you shall hear, Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere

One of his officers, Henry Lee, summed up contemporary public opinion of Washington: First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.

I was with George Washington at Valley Forge, sitting around before an attack... gimme a break. That's over 70 years ago already.

In a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people. Let it be told to the future world that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country alarmed at one common danger came forth to meet it.

I am George Rogers Clark. You have just become a prisoner of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

New Hampshire is one of the birthplaces of American freedom and independence - a place with a love and a passion for liberty.

Many of us came away from our youth thinking that the story of the Revolution was that the Americans were patriots fighting the oppressive British. It was kind of good versus evil, liberty versus tyranny. When you get into it, you find that it was much more complicated.

How I longed to see these things; how I longed to see the Liberty Bell and walk on the streets where Thomas Jefferson, Tom Paine and Benjamin Franklin had walked.

Didn't George Washington say, 'He who controls Afghanistan will carry New Jersey?'

You think of George Washington, this man who was larger than life, and in some ways he was. But at the same time, he's just a person.