If you get down about the state of American culture, just remember there are still more public libraries in this country than there are McDonalds.
David McculloughRead
When I read that the British army had landed thirty-two thousand troops - and I had realized, not very long before, that Philadelphia only had thirty thousand people in it - it practically lifted me out of my chair.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the awe and realization of the British army's strong military presence compared to the civilian population of Philadelphia.
David McCullough's quote highlights a moment of profound realization about the imbalance of military power versus civilian numbers during a critical historical event. The sheer weight of the British army's strength, outnumbering the local populace, serves to illustrate the precarious situation faced by the city and its inhabitants, which can evoke feelings of vulnerability and urgency in the face of overwhelming odds.
Themes
British ArmyPhiladelphiaMilitary PresenceRealizationHistorical Event
In practice
Example use cases
During a history class discussion on the Revolutionary War, this quote can be used to emphasize the disparity between colonial forces and British troops.
More from David Mccullough
All quotes →There is only one person who can measure your success. That person is you.
David McculloughRead
I just thank my father and mother, my lucky stars, that I had the advantage of an education in the humanities.
David McculloughRead
Napoleon could never imagine that some people loved their country as much as he loved his own.
David McculloughRead
When the founders wrote about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, they didn't mean longer vacations and more comfortable hammocks. They meant the pursuit of learning. The pursuit of improvement and excellence. In hard work is happiness.
David McculloughRead
Any nation that expects to be ignorant and free," Jefferson said, "expects what never was and never will be." And if the gap between the educated and the uneducated in America continues to grow as it is in our time, as fast as or faster than the gap between the rich and the poor, the gap between the educated and the uneducated is going to be of greater consequence and the more serious threat to our way of life. We must not, by any means, misunderstand that.
David McculloughRead
Similar quotes
One thing 'not right' on the 50th anniversary of the Selma marches is the sad fact that the Edmund Pettus Bridge hasn't been renamed the John Lewis Bridge.
Douglas BrinkleyRead
I believe history will come to view 9/11 as an event on par with November 22, 1963, the date on which John F. Kennedy was murdered, cutting short a presidency that was growing ever more promising. Dreams died that day in Dallas; it is easy to imagine the 1960s turning out rather differently had President Kennedy lived.
Jon MeachamRead
Our prime minister could embrace and forgive the people who killed our beloved sons and fathers, and so he should, but he could not, would not, apologise to the Aboriginal people for 200 years of murder and abuse. The battle against the Turks, he said in Gallipoli, was our history, our tradition. The war against the Aboriginals, he had already said at home, had happened long ago. The battle had made us; the war that won the continent was best forgotten
Peter CareyRead
Watergate is an immensely complicated scandal with a cast of characters as varied as a Tolstoy novel.
Bob WoodwardRead
One day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.
Ronald ReaganRead
From the very beginning, history wasn't content simply to be nostalgic fairytales; it wanted to make you think.
Simon SchamaRead