01UndatedJohn Hay on Lincoln: "He always worked with things as they were, while never relinquishing the desire to make them better.John Taliaferro / quote ↗
02UndatedJohn Hay indicates that dealing with people directly as a holder of political office "requires a stronger heart and a more obedient nervous system than I possess.John Taliaferro / quote ↗
03UndatedGood luck belongs to those who know how and are not afraid." John Hay to President Theodore RooseveltJohn Taliaferro / quote ↗
05UndatedJohn Hay points to our our history of getting lost in suffering when, "so close together were pain and antidote.John Taliaferro / quote ↗
06UndatedI like to introduce myself, because THEN I can get in all the facts." The usually self-deprecating John Hay on the ironic formality of signing his own commission as Secretary of State.John Taliaferro / quote ↗
08UndatedIf he could be hard on kings and cabinets, he was invariably kind to his colleagues.John Taliaferro / quote ↗
10UndatedIn this slipshod age, we need object lessons in language and thought. – Edith Wharton on an address by John HayJohn Taliaferro / quote ↗
11UndatedHenry Adams observes that John Hay has the ability to take the world as a whole rather than pulling it to pieces in criticism. He also observes that, in the routine of a stressful job, this perspective is challengedJohn Taliaferro / quote ↗
12UndatedBecause we have only one (life) we go about blundering along him nervous haste.John Taliaferro / quote ↗
14UndatedThe author observes that the friendship of John Hay and Charles Francis Adams benefited from a physical distance that required correspondence, meaning that feelings only implied in person had to be explicitly expressed.John Taliaferro / quote ↗
16UndatedHe did not so much follow his father's example as his father's vision.John Taliaferro / quote ↗
