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
Part of what I loved – and love – about being around older people is the tangible sense of history they embody. Im interested in military history, for instance, because both my grandfathers fought in World War II. Im interested in writing because one of those grandfathers wrote books. – Jon Meacham
World War II ended the Great Depression with one of the great public-private industrial collaborations in the history of man. – Jon Meacham
Here is a pretty good rule of thumb for Democratic Presidents: if it didnt work for Franklin D. Roosevelt, who won four terms and a World War, it probably wont work for you either. – Jon Meacham
I do genuinely believe that the political system is not linear. When it reaches a tipping point fashioned by a critical mass of opinion, the slow pace of change were used to will no longer be the norm. I see a lot of signs every day that were moving closer and closer to that tipping point. – Al Gore