A tough but nervous, tenacious but restless race [the Yankees]; materially ambitious, yet prone to introspection, and subject to waves of religious emotion. . . . A race whose typical member is eternally torn between a passion for righteousness and a desire to get on in the world.
Interpretation
This quote explores the dual nature of the Yankees, highlighting their inner conflict between ambition and moral integrity.
Samuel Eliot Morison reflects on the complex character of the Yankees, describing them as a group that embodies a struggle between two opposing drives: a strong ambition for material success and a deep-seated longing for righteousness and introspection. This internal tension suggests that they are perpetually navigating the societal pressures of achievement while grappling with their personal morals and emotions, which shapes their unique identity and experiences.
In practice
This quote could be used in a motivational speech to inspire individuals to balance ambition with their moral values.
But sea power has never led to despotism. The nations that have enjoyed sea power even for a brief period-Athens, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, England, the United States-are those that have preserved freedom for themselves and have given it to others. Of the despotism to which unrestrained military power leads we have plenty of examples from Alexander to Mao.
The freedmen were not really free in 1865, nor are most of their descendants really free in 1965. Slavery was but one aspect of a race and color problem that is still far from solution here, or anywhere. In America particularly, the grapes of wrath have not yet yielded all their bitter vintage.
So I have cultivated the vast garden of human experience which is history, without troubling myself overmuch about laws, essential first causes, or how it is all coming out.
Intellectual honesty is the quality that the public in free countries always has expected of historians; much more than that it does not expect, nor often get.
No big modern war has been won without preponderant sea power; and, conversely, very few rebellions of maritime provinces have succeeded without acquiring sea power.
Dream dreams and write them aye, but live them first.
Yesterday's rose endures in its name, we hold empty names.
If our highly pointed triangles of the soldier class are formidable, it may be readily inferred that far more formidable are our women. For if a soldier is a wedge, a women is a needle; being, so to speak, all point, at least at the two extremities. Add to this the power of making herself practically invisible at will, and you will perceive that a female, in Flatland, is a creature by no means to be trifled with.
If Islam despises Christianity, it has a thousandfold right to do so: Islam at least assumes that it is dealing with men.
Indeed, when religious people quarrel about religion, or hungry people quarrel about victuals, it looks as if they had not much of either among them.
Neither genius, fame, nor love show the greatness of the soul. Only kindness can do that.
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
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