Thomas Pinckney, who really did something, who did work worth doing and without many words, has been forgotten, while many of his contemporaries, who simply made a noise, are freshly remembered in the pages of history.
Lodge critiques the historical memory that favors loud figures over those who achieved significant results quietly.
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Of all the ideals that lift men up, the hardest to fulfill is the ideal of sacrifice.
No man ever prized sentiment or hated sentimentality more than he.
His ideal of public service was to be found in his life, and as his life drew to its close he had to meet his ideal of sacrifice face to face.
He preached unceasingly the familiar morals which lie at the bottom of both family and public life.