The largest website for English phrases and quotes

The largest website for English phrases and quotes

Category: H.W. Brands

Employment was better than idleness for men, because it kept the enemy guessing.

activity, boredom, leadership

The very lack of explicit pressure was itself a compelling force, for it created a world in which the expectation of success was simply there, a fact of life as basic as breakfast.

disillusionment, expectation, maturation, parenthood

There was so much – so many tests and tasks, so many tiny referenda.

maturation, parenthood

I believe my mother was smart enough to know that in the night, you are willing to tell all. If she waited until the next day, she knew she’d get one-syllable answers.

listening, parenthood, timing

Grant made the perfect candidate, a war hero with indistinct views on most political issues.

distraction, imagery, patriotism

Even when he played, he made a business of it.

fun, habits, leisure, training

The males (of the Hutchinson family that included both religious dissenter Anne and immensely wealthy and politically connected Thomas) were merchants who sought salvation through commerce.

idolatry, materialism

Amid the war the capitalists were asserting national necessity.

fear, materialism, motivation, national-security

Gold, or at least the prospect of it, saved him, then killed him.

idolatry, materialism, priorities

William “Boss” Tweed was in such thorough control in New York that he made money off of the report the committee printed after investigating him.

attention, influence, politics, publis-it-he

It’s philanthropy, but it’s good politics, too. Mighty good politics. The poor are some of the most grateful people in the world. George Washington Plunkett.

learned-helplessness, loyalty, materialism, welfare-state

He lived in terror of, well, becoming ordinary.

distinction, excellence