The fact is that America has been at her most prosperous when government and the private sector have been not at war, but in a wary, if often underplayed, alliance. History is unmistakable on this point. Jon Meacham Read Quote
I don’t think anyone is qualified to answer questions of eternal fate definitively, much less pinpoint it to a given day. Jon Meacham Read Quote
The more we can do to support and promulgate the intellectual traditions of the Abrahamic faiths – of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – the better armed we will be to fight fundamentalism. Jon Meacham Read Quote
The American system of political spending is so unregulated that it might make Adam Smith rethink free markets. Jon Meacham Read Quote
Part of what I loved – and love – about being around older people is the tangible sense of history they embody. I’m interested in military history, for instance, because both my grandfathers fought in World War II. I’m interested in writing because one of those grandfathers wrote books. Jon Meacham Read Quote
It would be wonderful if the public sector were always great, or always terrible; or if the private sector were always great, or always terrible. Alas, reality is more complicated than comforting caricatures. Governments fail, and corporations fail. Jon Meacham Read Quote
The bringing-about of order is the first and fundamental task of government. We accept limits on our rights for the sake of a larger social compact all the time. Jon Meacham Read Quote
As a southerner born after the epic events of the civil rights movement, I’ve always wondered how on earth people of good will could have conceivably lived with Jim Crow – with the daily degradations, the lynchings in plain sight, and, as the movement gathered force, with the fire hoses and the police dogs and the billy clubs. Jon Meacham Read Quote
Environmental concern is a little like dieting or paying off credit-card debt – an episodically terrific idea that burns brightly and then seems to fade when we realize there’s a reason we need to diet or pay down our debt. The reason is that it’s really, really hard, and too many of us in too many spheres of life choose the easy over the hard. Jon Meacham Read Quote
