If wisdom in government eludes us, perhaps courage could substitute-the moral courage to terminate mistakes. — Barbara Tuchman Copy Share Image
Confronted by menace, or what is perceived as menace, governments will usually attempt to smash it, rarely to examine it, understand it,… — Barbara Tuchman Copy Share Image
Government remains the paramount area of folly because it is there that men seek power over others - only to lose it… — Barbara Tuchman Copy Share Image
No more distressing moment can ever face a British government than that which requires it to come to a hard, fast and… — Barbara Tuchman Copy Share Image
Governments do not like to face radical remedies; it is easier to let politics predominate. — Barbara Tuchman Copy Share Image
Strong prejudices in an ill-formed mind are hazardous to government, and when combined with a position of power even more so. — Barbara Tuchman Copy Share Image
A phenomenon noticeable throughout history regardless of place or period is the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests. — Barbara Tuchman Copy Share Image
Policy is formed by preconceptions, by long implanted biases. When information is relayed to policy-makers, they respond in terms of what is… — Barbara Tuchman Copy Share Image
Wooden-headedness, the source of self-deception, is a factor that plays a remarkably large role in government. It consists in assessing a situation… — Barbara Tuchman Copy Share Image
His (Deschamps') complaint of court life was the same as is made of government at the top in any age: it was… — Barbara Tuchman Copy Share Image
In America, where the electoral process is drowning in commercial techniques of fund-raising and image-making, we may have completed a circle back… — Barbara Tuchman Copy Share Image
Chief among the forces affecting political folly is lust for power, named by Tacitus as "the most flagrant of all the passions."… — Barbara Tuchman Copy Share Image
While husbands and lovers in the stories are of all kinds, ranging from sympathetic to disgusting, women are invariably deceivers: inconstant, unscrupulous, quarrelsome, querulous,… — Barbara Tuchman Copy Share
The fleet sailed to its war base in the North Sea, headed not so much for some rendezvous with glory as for rendezvous with… — Barbara Tuchman Copy Share
The poets have familiarized more people with history than have the historians. — Barbara Tuchman Copy Share
Money was the crux. Raising money to pay the cost of war was to cause more damage to 14th century society than the physical… — Barbara Tuchman Copy Share
Misgovernment is of four kinds, often in combination. They are: 1) tyranny or oppression, of which history provides so many well-known examples that they… — Barbara Tuchman Copy Share
We seem to be afflicted by a widespread and eroding reluctance to take any stand on any values, moral, behavioral or esthetic. — Barbara Tuchman Copy Share
The clergy [in the 14th century] on the whole were probably no more lecherous or greedy or untrustworthy than other men, but because they… — Barbara Tuchman Copy Share
“German soldiers, posted as informers, were found dressed as peasants, even as peasant women. The latter were discovered, presumably in the course of non-military… — Barbara Tuchman Copy Share
I ask myself, have nations ever declined from a loss of moral sense rather than from physical reasons or the pressure of barbarians? I… — Barbara Tuchman Copy Share
