I love agitation.

ISSUE NO. 50 // GARFIELD SOUND BITES

Confession…

I’ve had a little crush on James Garfield ever since I read Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President, by Candice Millard years ago. At the time, I knew I needed to read another book about him to learn more about the rest of his life.

I finally got around to it!

I’ve given myself a fake deadline to finish President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier, by C.W. Goodyear by the anniversary of Crete Garfield’s death (March 13) cuz* I want to move on to a new book about John Quincy Adams.

Gathered below are five quotes from the one and only James Garfield.

Let’s get to it…

Presidential Doodler

*Apologies for the word play, but did I mention that while procrastinating on my John Adams presentation, I stumbled into discovering that I think I’m related to Presidents Adams?? I can’t shut up about it!

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5 James Garfield quotes

“Shall we enlarge the boundaries of citizenship, and make no prevision to increase the intelligence of the citizen?”

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“To be an extreme man is doubtless comfortable. It is painful to see so many sides to a subject.”

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“I love agitation and investigation, and glory in defending unpopular truth against popular error.”

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“Is the glory of America greater than her shame?”

(Is the glory of this hand lettering greater than the shame of leaving out a word in the quote…? No. No it is not.).

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“[The shopkeeper] thinks we are exceedingly green, not to know what every street urchin here knows, but I have long since determined not to let an opportunity pass for learning something, simply because I must expose my ignorance in doing so.”

♡

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