Nathaniel Philbrick Quotes

How much of assumed national and personal character comes from the fact that we have never truly known need to the point of having our character tested? Willing conscientious objectors underwent controlled starvation and confirmed how quickly it impacts the initiative and generosity we like to think of as American characteristics.

~ Nathaniel Philbrick

Faint not, poor soul, in God still trust;Fear not the things thou suffer must;For, whom he loves he doth chastise, And then all tears wipes from their eyes.William BradfordPlymouth Colony Governor

~ Nathaniel Philbrick

Instead of being a page-turner, 'Moby-Dick' is a repository of American history and culture and the essentials of Western literature. The book is so encyclopedic that space aliens could use it to re-create the whale fishery as it once existed on the planet Earth in the midst of the 19th century.

~ Nathaniel Philbrick

I had a great AP U.S. History teacher in Pittsburgh. We still exchange Christmas cards. She was the first teacher who said I was a good writer - and I'd never heard that before. And so I remember that, and I remember that level of loving the material and really loving writing about it.

~ Nathaniel Philbrick

Washington worked very hard to create his legacy. Even before the War of Independence was over, he was assembling his papers and making sure they were going to be in a state of preservation that would represent as best he could the official side of what occurred during the Revolution.

~ Nathaniel Philbrick

In all natural disasters through time, man needs to attach meaning to tragedy, no matter how random and inexplicable the event is.

~ Nathaniel Philbrick

When I was at Brown, I wanted to write the great American novel, but I was too scared to take a creative course. I signed up for one, got in, and just didn't have the courage to go. I was a tremendously shy person, almost pathologically shy. The thought of peers critiquing my work - oh, God.

~ Nathaniel Philbrick

A good leader has to at some point trust those around him; otherwise, nothing constructive is going to get done.

~ Nathaniel Philbrick