Chief among the forces affecting political folly is lust for power, named by Tacitus as "the most flagrant of all the passions." Because it can only be satisfied by power over others, government is its favorite field of exercise. Business… — 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 Image
Doctrine tied itself into infinite knots over the realities of sex. — Barbara Tuchman Copy Share Image
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 Image
The poets have familiarized more people with history than have the historians. — Barbara Tuchman Copy Share Image
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 Image
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 do not need citing; 2) excessive ambition, such as Athens' attempted conquest of Sicily in the Peloponnesian War, Philip II's of England via the Armada, Germany's twice-attempted rule of Europe by a self-conceived master race, Japan's… — 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 Image
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 Image
Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled. — Barbara Tuchman Copy Share Image
![“The clergy [in the 14th century] on the whole were probably no more lecherous or greedy or untrustworthy than other men, but because they were supposed to be better or nearer to God than other men, their failings attracted more attention.” quote by Barbara Tuchman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/558/barbara-tuchman-3945_attention_the-clergy-in-the-14th-century-on-the-wh_159681.jpg)
