Kenneth C. Davis QUOTES

1 " The following twenty years would be the nadir of American Indian history, as the total Indian population between 1890 and 1910 fell to fewer than 250,000. (It was not until 1917 that Indian births exceeded deaths for the first time in fifty years.) "

― Kenneth C. Davis , Don't Know Much about History: Everything You Need to Know about American History But Never Learned

2 " It might be useful to think about authoritarianism, totalitarianism, or any kind of dictatorship in the same way we think about dangerous, life-threatening, infectious diseases. The best prevention against such a disease is to build immunity. Education is like a vaccination. Understanding history is part of the process of making ourselves more immune to the dangers of dictatorship. "

― Kenneth C. Davis

3 " Memorizing information is valuable but only if you're able to make some sense of the information and put it into a useful context. Isn't it much better if we can attach something tangible to that information? "

― Kenneth C. Davis , Don't Know Much About Geography: Everything You Need to Know About the World but Never Learned

4 " How strong is a faith that can't stand up to a few honest questions? "

― Kenneth C. Davis , Don't Know Much About® the Bible: Everything You Need to Know About the Good Book but Never Learned

5 " Puritanism—the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy. —H. L. Mencken (1949) "

― Kenneth C. Davis , America's Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation

6 " how the innate and insatiable curiosity young children have about the world gets absolutely killed by the tedium of school. "

― Kenneth C. Davis , Don't Know Much About® Mythology: Everything You Need to Know About the Greatest Stories in Human History but Never Learned

7 " The notion of Spaniards fighting Frenchmen in Florida four decades before England established its first permanent settlement in America, and half a century before the Pilgrims sailed, is an unexpected notion to those accustomed to the familiar legends of Jamestown and Plymouth. "

― Kenneth C. Davis , America's Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation

8 " Two boys wearing masks, the most visible symbol of the epidemic "

― Kenneth C. Davis , More Deadly Than War: The Hidden History of the Spanish Flu and the First World War

9 " 1539 First printing press in New World set up in Mexico City. "

― Kenneth C. Davis , Don't Know Much about History: Everything You Need to Know about American History But Never Learned

10 " what really led to the conquest of the Americas was not military might or a superior culture. The largest single factor in the destruction of the native populations in the Americas was the introduction of epidemic diseases to which the natives had no natural immunity. "

― Kenneth C. Davis , Don't Know Much about History: Everything You Need to Know about American History But Never Learned

11 " The process of election affords a moral certainty that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications. Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union. "

― Kenneth C. Davis , Don't Know Much About the American Presidents

12 " Most of these displaced Acadians traveled south to the vicinity of New Orleans and would later be known as Cajuns. "

― Kenneth C. Davis , America's Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation

13 " By the time the war was over, Great Britain also had a new monarch in George III, who had taken the throne in 1760. And in Boston, a feisty American lawyer named James Otis would issue his first political tract and argue that American colonists possessed all the rights of an English citizen. "

― Kenneth C. Davis , America's Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation

14 " On April 30. 1789, George Washington stood on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City, the temporary national capital. He took the oath of office on a Masonic Bible, ad-libbing the words “So help me God,” which the oath of office as specified in the Constitution does not require. "

― Kenneth C. Davis , America's Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation

15 " Eve LaPlante, American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, pp. 238–39. Hutchinson’s many generations of descendants include Thomas Hutchinson, who later became governor of Massachusetts during the pre-Revolutionary days and whose policies incited the Boston Tea Party (see Chapter 4 ). In the twentieth century, her descendants included Franklin D. Roosevelt, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush, making this rather extraordinary woman the ancestor of three American presidents. "

― Kenneth C. Davis , America's Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation

16 " Of course, on a map oriented along the lines of this jingle: North to the ceiling, South to the floor, West to the window, East to the door it did appear that the Nile River flowed up. I can’t tell you much else about what happened in that classroom that year. "

― Kenneth C. Davis , Don't Know Much About Geography: Everything You Need to Know About the World but Never Learned

17 " The distinction between the Pilgrims, those who came to Plymouth between 1620 and 1630, and the Puritans, who came after 1629, initially settling Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut, eventually disappeared as the great wave of Puritan settlers transformed the colony.16 "

― Kenneth C. Davis , America's Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation

18 " Consistency of principles and message • Strength of character • Willingness to compromise—when necessary and consistent with principles • Recognizing talent and being surrounded by it without surrendering to it • Willingness to listen • Communication skills • Humor and a human touch "

― Kenneth C. Davis , Don't Know Much About the American Presidents

19 " Joseph "

― Kenneth C. Davis , Don't Know Much About® Mythology: Everything You Need to Know About the Greatest Stories in Human History but Never Learned

20 " The past is prologue. "

― Kenneth C. Davis , America's Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation

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