All Barbara Tuchman Quotes
- Belgium, where there occurred one of the rare appearances of the hero in history, was lifted above herself by the uncomplicated conscience of her King… Acquiesce
- Arguments can always be found to turn desire into policy. Argument
- Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. Without books, the development… Bankers
- 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… Ambition
- If I had taken a doctoral degree, it would have stifled any writing capacity. Any
- In a country where misery and want were the foundation of the social structure, famine was periodic, death from starvation common, disease pervasive, thievery normal,… Aspect
- In April 1917 the illusion of isolation was destroyed, America came to the end of innocence, and of the exuberant freedom of bachelor independence. That… America
- If power corrupts, weakness in the seat of power, with its constant necessity of deals and bribes and compromising arrangements,corrupts even more. Arrangements
- More than a code of manners in war and love, Chivalry was a moral system, governing the whole of noble life... Chivalry
- Above all, discard the irrelevant. All
- Books are the carriers of civilization... .....Books are humanity in print. Book
- Every successful revolution puts on in time the robes of the tyrant it has deposed. Deposed
- When people don't have an objective, there's much less dynamic effort, and that makes life a lot less interesting. Dynamic
- The reality of a question is inevitably more complicated than we would like to suppose. Complicated
- Fateful moments tend to evoke grandeur of speech, especially in French. Especially
- To ensure that no one gained an advantage over anyone else, commercial law [in the 14th century] prohibited innovation in tools or techniques, underselling below… Advantage
- 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… Attention
- No economic activity was more irrepressible [in the 14th century] than the investment and lending at interest of money; it was the basis for the… Activity
- If wisdom in government eludes us, perhaps courage could substitute-the moral courage to terminate mistakes. Courage
- The Church [in the 14th century] gave ceremony and dignity to lives that had little of either. It was the source of beauty and art… Access