The Path Between the Seas

by David McCullough

“Do not forget that to accomplish great things you must have enthusiasm,”

He was the first President to call his official residence the White House (rather than the Executive Mansion),

“A successful man never forgets his work. He gets up in the morning with it, he works all day with it, he takes it home with him, he lives with it.”

“Engineers are sometimes the least practical of men, they may be attracted by difficulties. . . . .”

“It is a piece of work that reminds me of what a teacher said to me when I was in Exeter [Phillips Exeter Academy] over forty years ago, that if he had five minutes in which to solve a problem he would spend three deciding the best way to do it.”

“You won’t get fired if you do something, you will if you don’t do anything. Do something if it is wrong, for you can correct that, but there is no way to correct nothing.”