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There are many rules of good writing, but the best way to find them is to be a good reader.

Stephen Ambrose

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Stephen Ambrose
Age: 66 †
Born: 1936
Born: January 10
Died: 2002
Died: October 13
Biographer
Essayist
Historian
University Teacher
Decatur
Illinois
Stephen Edward Ambrose
Many
Writing
Way
Good
Rules
Reader
Best
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More quotes by Stephen Ambrose

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Andrew Johnson was a Southerner generally who proclaimed that his native state of Tennessee was a country for white men.
Stephen Ambrose
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Oftentimes the fascinating thing is that people who are seen as commanding figures at the moment that they were considered for President and did not run turned out to be treated by history as much more minor figures politically.
Stephen Ambrose
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It is through history that we learn who we are and how we got that way, why and how we changed, why the good sometimes prevailed and sometimes did not.
Stephen Ambrose
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We are part of a country that outshines those that have gone before us and most of those in existence today.
Stephen Ambrose
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Eisenhower is my choice as the American of the 20th Century. Of all the men I've studied and written about, he is the brightest and the best.
Stephen Ambrose
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When Hitler declared war on the United States, he was betting that German soldiers, raised up in the Hitler Youth, would always out fight American soldiers, brought up in the Boy Scouts. He lost that bet. The Boy Scouts had been taught how to figure their way out of their own problems.
Stephen Ambrose
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The war in Vietnam I thought a dreadful mistake.
Stephen Ambrose
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The American Constitution is the greatest governing document, and at some 7,000 words, just about the shortest.
Stephen Ambrose
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The Canadians have managed to live peacefully with their Indians. It is disgrace that the United States has not done the same.
Stephen Ambrose
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I think it's just that the private lives of our public leaders are so much more exposed today that if you're sensitive to protecting your family, it's much harder to not get defensive when somebody asks you those really rude questions about what your wife and your children are thinking and feeling at that exact moment.
Stephen Ambrose
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The number one secret of being a successful writer is this: marry an English major.
Stephen Ambrose
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During the Second World War, the Germans took four years to build the Atlantic Wall. On four beaches it held up the Allies for about an hour at Omaha it held up the U.S. for less than one day. The Atlantic Wall must therefore be regarded as one of the greatest blunders in military history.
Stephen Ambrose
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There are many more want-to-be writers out there than good editors.
Stephen Ambrose
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I think that the opportunity to improve race relations in the United States has been put off temporarily.
Stephen Ambrose
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I thought Nixon was the worst President we had ever had, save only perhaps Andrew Johnson.
Stephen Ambrose
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Eisenhower had the clearest blue eyes. He would fix them on you. In my every interview with him, he would lock his eyes on to mine and keep them there.
Stephen Ambrose
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My first book was the book that changed my life.
Stephen Ambrose
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Nothing is inevitable in life. People make choices, and those choices have results, and we all live with the results.
Stephen Ambrose
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I was taught by professors who had done their schooling in the 1930s. Most of them were scornful of, even hated, big business.
Stephen Ambrose
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Immigrants do more than help us win our wars, or set up cleaning shops or ethnic restaurants.
Stephen Ambrose