Even in the best of lives, mistakes are made.

- Joseph J. Ellis

Men make history, but they can never know the history they are making.

- Joseph J. Ellis

Chronology, so the saying goes, is the last refuge of the feeble-minded and the only resort for historians.

- Joseph J. Ellis

I deeply regret having let stand and later confirming the assumption that I went to Vietnam. For this and any other distortions about my personal lif…

- Joseph J. Ellis

Because he could not afford to fail, he could not afford to trust.

- Joseph J. Ellis

Remember sometimes just the rush of having a crush is a temptation, even if it is inappropriate, but beware of playing with fire, you will get burned.

- Joseph J. Ellis

Lincoln once said that America was founded on a proposition that was written by Jefferson in 1776. We are really founded on an argument about what th…

- Joseph J. Ellis

To my three sons, Peter, Scott, and Alexander who pulled me from the 18th Century and back into the present on a regular basis and therefore made me …

- Joseph J. Ellis

And the only thing to do with a sin is to confess, do penance and then, after some kind of decent interval, ask for forgiveness.

- Joseph J. Ellis