"Just the other day, I was in my neighborhood Starbucks, waiting for the post office to open. I was enjoying a chocolatey cafe mocha when it occurred t...












Robert Todd Lincoln, a.k.a. Jinxy McDeath.

More Sarah Vowell quotes
"I do not think that there can ever be enough books about anything; and I say that knowing that some of them are going to be about Pilates. The more kn...
"But I can no longer ready any faith's Napoleonic saber rattling without picturing smoking rubble on cable news. I guess if I had to pick a spiritual f...
"Along with voting, jury duty, and paying taxes, goofing off is one of the central obligations of American citizenship. So when my friends Joel and Ste...
"The thing that drew me to Lafayette as a subject - that he was that rare object of agreement in the ironically named United States - kept me coming ba...
"Still, compared to him, compared to the people we descend from, I am free of history. I'm so free of history I have to get in a car and drive seven st...
"The whole reason I wanted to take Owen to Disney World is that I fear that someday he's going to look through his childhood photo album and wonder why...
"The whole reason I wanted to take Owen to Disney World is that I fear that someday he's going to look through his childhood photo album and wonder why...
"History is one war after another with a bunch of murders and natural disasters in between.
"In the United States, there was no simpler, more agreeable time.
"Wainwright prayed to the graven image of Lafayette, since neither the president nor Congress seemed to be listening. “We, the women of the United Stat...
"You know your country has a checkered past when you find yourself sitting around pondering the humanitarian upside of sticking with the British Empire...
"All those adorable towheaded kids in the promotional film are going to turn thirteen. Once a family member hits puberty, odds are that everybody is no...
"If this fails to convince, I being out my secret weapon, announcing with portentous deliberation that Barbara. Damn. Walters. Does. Not. Drive. Heard ...
"The more history I learn, the more the world fills up with stories.