List of Bruce Catton Quotes

Soldiers Who Had Been In The Army Long Enough To Know What A Bloody Swindle War Really Is Would Begin To Feel That Army Life Was Really Kind Of Fun, As Long As [general Philip] Sheridan Was Up Front.

Early Youth Is A Baffling Time

The Present Moment Is Nice But It Does Not Last. Living In It Is Like Waiting In A Junction Town For The Morning Limited; The Junction May Be Interesting But Some Day You Will Have To Leave It And You Do Not Know Where The Limited Will Take You.

The Confederate Constitution Was Almost Identical To That Of The United States.

The 1860 Election Became A Referendum On The Southern Way Of Life.

Beneath Everything Else, North And West, There Ran A Profound, Unvoiced, Almost Subconscious Conviction That The [american] Nation Was Going To Go On Growing-in Size, In Power, In Everything A Man Could Think Of-and In That Belief There Was A Might And A Fury That Would Take Form Instantly At The Moment Of Shock.

Like Most Rebel Soldiers, Sam Watkins Owned No Slaves.

I Think I Was Always Subconsciously Driven By An Attempt To Restate That Faith And To Show Where It Was Properly Grounded, How It Grew Out Of What A Great Many Young Men On Both Sides Felt And Believed And Were Brave Enough To Do

Shiloh Had As Many Casualties As Waterloo, And Yet There Were Another 20 Waterloos To Come.

Men See Things Late, And It May Be That At Times An Evil Fate Drives Them On.

Abraham Lincoln Was Not All Brooding And Melancholy And Patient Understanding. There Was A Hard Core In Him, And Plenty Of Toughness. He Could Recognize A Revolutionary Situation When He Saw One, And He Could Act Fast And Ruthlessly To Meet It.

Yet There Is A Dignity In The Human Spirit Which Can Become Most Clearly Visible In The Moment Of Defeat And Disaster.