Ron Chernow Quotes

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About Ron Chernow

Ron Chernow, born on February 18, 1949, in Brooklyn, New York, is an acclaimed American biographer known for his meticulously researched and eloquently written books about influential historical figures. Raised in a middle-class Jewish family, he developed an early interest in history, nurtured by his father's love for Americana and his mother's passion for literature. Chernow earned his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and later obtained a Ph.D. in American History from Balliol College, Oxford. His academic background combined with his natural storytelling abilities has made him one of the most respected biographers of our time. His major works include 'Alexander Hamilton' (2004), which served as the inspiration for the hit Broadway musical 'Hamilton'; 'Washington: A Life' (2010); 'Grant' (2017), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography; and 'The House of Morgan' (1990), a comprehensive history of J.P. Morgan & Co. Chernow's works are noted for their deep research, insightful analysis, and engaging narrative style. He has a knack for breathing life into historical figures, making them relatable and relevant to contemporary readers. His biographies not only offer an in-depth look at the lives of these influential individuals but also provide valuable insights into their times, contributing significantly to our understanding of American history. Today, Ron Chernow continues to write and lecture, his work celebrated for its historical depth, literary elegance, and profound cultural significance.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"Great leaders are almost always risk takers."

This quote by Ron Chernow suggests that successful leaders are often individuals who are willing to take calculated risks. The implication is that great leadership requires boldness, vision, and the courage to act decisively even when faced with uncertainty. These traits are essential for driving progress and innovation as they push boundaries and challenge the status quo. However, it's important to note that taking risks does not mean being reckless or irresponsible; great leaders always consider potential outcomes and balance risk against reward before making a decision.

"History's great men and women were not necessarily good people but often complex, flawed individuals."

This quote suggests that significant figures in history, typically labeled as "great" due to their influential accomplishments, are often more nuanced than simply "good" or "bad." These individuals may have achieved greatness despite having personal flaws, complexities, or even engaging in morally questionable actions. The importance of these historical figures lies not only in their contributions but also in understanding the complexities of human nature and the context within which they lived and acted.

"Ambition is the force that drives history, that produces greatness in individuals."

This quote emphasizes the central role ambition plays in shaping history and human achievement. Ambition serves as a powerful motivator, pushing individuals to strive for greatness and to make significant contributions to society. It's the force that propels people to set lofty goals, work tirelessly towards their fulfillment, and ultimately leave an indelible mark on the course of history. In essence, ambition is not just a personal desire but a driving force behind human progress and greatness.

"The first task of a biographer is to recreate the world in which his subject lived."

This quote emphasizes the importance of context in biography writing. By "recreating the world" where the subject lived, Ron Chernow underscores the need for a thorough understanding and portrayal of the historical, social, political, and cultural milieu that influenced his or her life and actions. Essentially, it's about painting a vivid picture of the time period to provide readers with a deeper appreciation of the subject's accomplishments and challenges.

"We have too many people now who are so cynical about politics and government that they don't participate. But if you quit voting, don't complain."

This quote emphasizes the power of individual action in democracy. It suggests that when citizens become disenchanted with politics and government, choosing to abstain from voting, they also relinquish their right to voice complaints about the state of affairs. In essence, it encourages civic engagement by highlighting the hypocrisy in criticizing political systems without contributing to them through participation.

I was quite bowled over by Isabel Wilkerson's masterly saga, 'The Warmth of Other Suns.'

- Ron Chernow

Other, Over, Quite, Warmth

I have developed a very strong partiality for the dead: they don't talk back, they don't sue, and they don't have angry relatives.

- Ron Chernow

Relationship, Strong, Very, Sue

Mutual fund managers are trapped in this rather deadly vicious circle: the more successful they are, the more money flows into their mutual fund. Then, it is more difficult for them to beat the market averages or even to match their own past performance.

- Ron Chernow

Own, Rather, Deadly, Vicious

Hamilton had a certain social versatility, and in a way, that is understandable because he's someone who rises up from the lowest rungs of society and then scales the top. And he gets to know people from every strata along the way.

- Ron Chernow

Society, Had, Hamilton, Versatility

In many ways, the North won the Civil War militarily and then lost the peace. You know, a group of writers, included many Confederate generals, began a school of thought called the Lost Cause in which they began to romanticize the Confederacy.

- Ron Chernow

Thought, Confederacy, North, Confederate

Reconstruction is the great black hole that remains to be filled. Even experts on the Civil War don't really understand its full significance.

- Ron Chernow

Black, Understand, Civil War, Significance

By the late 1980s people realized that houses did not always appreciate and that they could fluctuate like any other market commodity.

- Ron Chernow

Always, Other, Commodity, Fluctuate

Mutual funds have historically offered safety and diversification. And they spare you the responsibility of picking individual stocks.

- Ron Chernow

Individual, Picking, Stocks, Funds

Mutual funds give people the sense that they're investing with the big boys and that they're really not at a disadvantage entering the stock market.

- Ron Chernow

Big, Give, Disadvantage, Funds

The best argument for mutual funds is that they offer safety and diversification. But they don't necessarily offer safety and diversification.

- Ron Chernow

Argument, Mutual, Offer, Funds

Strange as it may seem, George Washington's life has now been so minutely documented that we know far more about him than did his own friends, family, and contemporaries.

- Ron Chernow

More, Been, May, Documented

I don't think that a mutual fund that invests exclusively in biotech start-ups or invests exclusively in companies in Thailand offers any great safety or diversification.

- Ron Chernow

Think, Offers, Any, Thailand

In the 1920s, Wall Street was a world that was really dominated by professional speculators and stock pools. These people had a monopoly over information.

- Ron Chernow

Over, 1920s, Had, Pools

If you go back to the time of J.P. Morgan, the world of high finance was completely wholesale. The prestigious investment banks on Wall Street appealed exclusively to large corporations, governments, and to extremely wealthy individuals.

- Ron Chernow

Back, Wealthy, Appealed, Morgan

Every time I wrote fiction, I was discouraged, and every time I wrote nonfiction, I was encouraged.

- Ron Chernow

Fiction, Encouraged, Wrote, Discouraged

When the market is just going up, up, and up, we all tend to be blind to the holes in the market. They're all papered over by the rise.

- Ron Chernow

Blind, Over, Going, Holes

Because of the love affair between the American public and the stock market, it is possible for entrepreneurs, technological visionaries and inventors of every sort to get financing.

- Ron Chernow

Love, Inventors, Visionaries, Financing

The public has lost faith in the ability of Social Security and Medicare to provide for old age. They've lost faith in the banking system and in conventional medical insurance.

- Ron Chernow

Medical, Insurance, Social, Banking System

Once the brokerage house, rather than the bank, became the locus for American savings, that money would find its way into the stock market, because the broker was someone with a much higher tolerance for risk than the banker.

- Ron Chernow

American, Rather, Became, Tolerance

I'm disturbed by the words missing from the Trump campaign: Liberty, justice, freedom, and tolerance.

- Ron Chernow

Freedom, Disturbed, Trump, Tolerance

That strategy of buy and hold, which is the sound and sensible one for the individual, can have very dangerous and perverse effects for the market as a whole.

- Ron Chernow

Individual, Very, Which, Sensible

It's a shameful thing to admit for someone who writes such long books, but I read so slowly that I almost subvocalize.

- Ron Chernow

Read, Almost, Slowly, Writes

The founding fathers were not only brilliant, they were system builders and systematic thinkers. They came up with comprehensive plans and visions.

- Ron Chernow

Founding Fathers, Fathers, Visions

Partly because his life ended before the age of 50, Hamilton was defined by the other founding fathers, and he managed, with amazing consistency, to alienate most of them.

- Ron Chernow

Other, Founding Fathers, Alienate

I'm sure there are many more people who can identify with failure and hardship in life than with the success of an Alexander Hamilton or a John D. Rockefeller.

- Ron Chernow

Sure, More People, Identify, Rockefeller

Early on, New York already had a national and even international identity.

- Ron Chernow

New York, New, Even, International

One of the very nice things about investing in the stock market is that you learn about all different aspects of the economy. It's your window into a very large world.

- Ron Chernow

Learn, Very, Large, Investing

As a bull market continues, almost anything you buy goes up. It makes you feel that investing in stocks is a very easy and safe and that you're a financial genius.

- Ron Chernow

Goes, Very, Almost, Investing

I'm a biographer; I can live with a little hyperbole.

- Ron Chernow

Live, I Can, Little, Hyperbole

The Great Inflation of the 1970s destroyed faith in paper assets, because if you held a bond, suddenly the bond was worth much less money than it was before.

- Ron Chernow

Before, Held, Less Money, 1970s

In the 1970s we saw a massive shift of household savings from the banks to the brokerage firms.

- Ron Chernow

Brokerage, Massive, Banks, 1970s

What I find very interesting about the mutual funds managers is that here are people who are the new masters of the universe. They're managing billions, yet they're subject to this quiet daily tyranny of numbers.

- Ron Chernow

Tyranny, Here, Very, Managers

Hamilton was young, dashing, and romantic. He lent himself perfectly to be the star of a musical.

- Ron Chernow

Star, Himself, Perfectly, Lent

I felt blessed by the existence of Horace Porter's 'Campaigning With Grant.'

- Ron Chernow

Existence, Campaigning, Felt, Porter

The securities laws of the 1930s were so important because it forced companies to file registration statements and issue prospectuses, and it remedied the imbalance of information.

- Ron Chernow

Laws, 1930s, Imbalance, Registration

I never imagined that Hamilton would be turned into a musical, much less a hip-hop musical. I think I can safely say that that's the last thing I would have expected.

- Ron Chernow

Think, I Think, Turned, Hip-Hop

The story of Alexander Hamilton lends itself to hip-hop treatment. Hamilton's personality is driven and unrelenting, and the music has that same quality. The music and the man mirror each other.

- Ron Chernow

Mirror, Other, Treatment, Hip-Hop

Writing about dead white males seems to be out of favor among academics.

- Ron Chernow

White, Favor, Among, Males

Ultimately, the appraisal of Grant's presidency rests upon posterity's view of Reconstruction.

- Ron Chernow

View, Presidency, Posterity, Grant

There is no country in the world where it's as easy to find venture capital in the stock market as the United States.

- Ron Chernow

Country, United States, No Country

When news of the crash came, probably a lot of people in small towns and farms across America felt a sense of grim satisfaction that the sinners had finally been punished for their wicked ways.

- Ron Chernow

Small, Been, Had, Small Towns

After being Washington's aide for four years and becoming the hero of Yorktown, Hamilton was viewed with a great deal of suspicion because of his association with Tories.

- Ron Chernow

Deal, Becoming, Tories, Great Deal

I'm dubious about having Social Security put into the stock market. I think that we have gotten very far away from the idea that there's something sacrosanct about retirement investments.

- Ron Chernow

Away, I Think, Very, Dubious

There is a kind of fear, approaching a panic, that's spreading through the Baby Boom Generation, which has suddenly discovered that it will have to provide for its own retirement.

- Ron Chernow

Generation, Through, Which, Panic

After 1929, so many people had been traumatized by the stock market crash that there was a lost generation.

- Ron Chernow

Generation, Been, Had, Traumatized

The thing with all the Founding Fathers, one of the most common words they used was 'posterity.' They were constantly referring to posterity.

- Ron Chernow

Founding Fathers, Fathers, Founding

I just have been so surprised and delighted with what has happened with 'Hamilton.' It really has been one of the most enchanting experiences of my life.

- Ron Chernow

My Life, Been, Enchanting, Surprised

Stock market corrections, although painful at the time, are actually a very healthy part of the whole mechanism, because there are always speculative excesses that develop, particularly during the long bull market.

- Ron Chernow

Always, Very, Particularly, Stock

The American public historically was really not part of the stock market.

- Ron Chernow

Stock Market, Market, Public, Stock

A lot of the money in the stock market is really our national retirement plan, for better or worse.

- Ron Chernow

Better, Market, Lot, Stock

We really haven't had very much experience with people funding their retirement out of the stock market, and we don't know, frankly, how it would work under every scenario.

- Ron Chernow

Work, Funding, Very, Stock

Any bull market covers a multitude of sins, so there may be all sorts of problems with the current system that we won't see until the bear market comes.

- Ron Chernow

May, Multitude, Any, Bull

As the bull market goes on, people who take great risks achieve great rewards, seemingly without punishment. It's like crime without punishment or sex without sin.

- Ron Chernow

Achieve, Goes, Like, Bull

A crash really occurs when you suddenly have a violent downturn in the market that then heralds a long bull market.

- Ron Chernow

Violent, Downturn, Then, Bull

I think there's a tide that tends to carry historians back to the past.

- Ron Chernow

Think, Tide, Historians, Tends

I think one of the important things that's happened in the course of the century is that life expectancy has doubled.

- Ron Chernow

Think, I Think, Life Expectancy

In the 1920s you could buy stocks on margin. You could put 10 percent down and borrow the rest against your stocks.

- Ron Chernow

Rest, Margin, 1920s, Borrow

There were two qualities about the mutual funds of the 1920s that made them extremely speculative. One was that they were heavily leveraged. Two, mutual funds were allowed to invest in other mutual funds.

- Ron Chernow

Other, Made, 1920s, Speculative

Hamilton was extremely combative. Not only was he combative, but he also overreacted to anything he perceived as a threat or a criticism.

- Ron Chernow

Only, Extremely, Perceived, Combative

I think those who invest in mutual funds want someone else to do the thinking for them. But the fact that they can move the money around the family of mutual funds just through a phone call lets them feel that they can play tycoons.

- Ron Chernow

Play, Through, I Think, Funds

Hamilton had one of those extraordinary 18th-century minds that touched on virtually every major topic of the day.

- Ron Chernow

Touched, Had, Virtually, Topic

The mutual fund industry and small investors are very relentless and very unforgiving if people don't perform.

- Ron Chernow

Small, Very, Perform, Fund

Politics boils down to the stories we tell ourselves. And unfortunately, we tell ourselves different stories.

- Ron Chernow

Politics, Tell, Stories, Unfortunately

You don't want too much fear in a market, because people will be blinded to some very good buying opportunities. You don't want too much complacency because people will be blinded to some risk.

- Ron Chernow

Will, Some, Very, Risk

I find that when I come upon something that I think is a historical revelation, I have the sort of adrenaline rush that I imagine a gambler gets in Las Vegas when he hits the jackpot. It's still tremendously exciting to me, and I think all of my peers in the business feel the same way.

- Ron Chernow

I Think, Peers, Las Vegas, Adrenaline

The history of Wall Street is inseparable from New York.

- Ron Chernow

New York, New, Inseparable, Wall

I always sympathize with people who complain about the length of my books. It would take me a year to get through one of them.

- Ron Chernow

Through, Always, Sympathize, Complain

With any piece of writing, you're hoping that it will change something, and it seldom does.

- Ron Chernow

Will, Piece, Does, Hoping

There were 900 books on Washington when I began writing on him.

- Ron Chernow

Books, Began, Were, Washington

One of the special characteristics of New York is that it is different from a London or a Paris because it's the financial capital, and the cultural capital, but not the political capital.

- Ron Chernow

London, New, Characteristics, Paris

I never dreamed that I would be autographing Playbills.

- Ron Chernow

Never, Would, Dreamed

When you're a biographer, you want to explore the very things that your subject didn't care to talk about.

- Ron Chernow

Explore, Want, Very, Subject

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