The evil of technology was not technology itself, Lindbergh came to see after the war, not in airplanes or the myriad contrivances of modern technical ingenuity, but in the extent to which they can distance us from our better moral nature, or sense of personal accountability.

— David McCullough

The more Adams thought about the future of his country, the more convinced he became that it rested on education. Before any great things are accomplished, he wrote to a correspondent, a memorable change must be made in the system of education and knowledge must become so general as to raise the lower ranks of society nearer to the higher. The education of a nation instead of being confined to a few schools and universities for the instruction of the few, must become the national care and expense for the formation of the many.

— David McCullough

The reason is, because it’s of more importance to community, that innocence should be protected, than it is, that guilt should be punished.

— David McCullough

There was no opiate like a French pillow.

— David McCullough

The source of our suffering has been our timidity. We have been afraid to think.... Let us dare to read, think, speak, write.

— David McCullough

Those for whom things came easily usually made less of an effort, not more.

— David McCullough

To be unable to read was the ultimate measure of wretchedness.

— David McCullough

To his own children he was at once the ultimate voice of authority and, when time allowed, their most exuberant companion. He never fired their imaginations or made them laugh as their mother could, but he was unfailingly interested in them, sympathetic, confiding, entering into their lives in ways few fathers ever do. It was a though he was in league with them.

— David McCullough

To me history ought to be a source of pleasure. It isn't just part of our civic responsibility. To me, it's an enlargement of the experience of being alive, just the way literature or art or music is.

— David McCullough

To me, history ought to be a source of pleasure. It isn't just part of our civic responsibility. To me, it's an enlargement of the experience of being alive, just the way literature or art or music is."; NEH 2003 Jefferson Lecturer interview profile]

— David McCullough