Joseph J. Ellis
Joseph J. Ellis
Joseph John Ellisis an American historian and professor whose work focuses on the lives and times of the founders of the United States of America. American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson won a National Book Award and Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for History. Both these books were bestsellers...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
CountryUnited States of America
Joseph J. Ellis quotes about
genius idiot constitution
[quoting someone else] the American constitution is a document designed by geniuses to be eventually interpreted by idiots
office vote behavior
...the very notion that a candidate should openly solicit votes violated the principled presumption that such behavior itself represented a confession of unworthiness for national office.
reader
I would say readers can trust my work more than anyone else's.
penance kind sin
And the only thing to do with a sin is to confess, do penance and then, after some kind of decent interval, ask for forgiveness.
mistake made life-mistakes
Even in the best of lives, mistakes are made.
tasks inevitable improbable
Washington's task was to transform the improbable into the inevitable.
self fire serenity
Some models of self-control are able to achieve their serenity easily because the soul fires never burn brightly to begin with.