Books are the carriers of civilization… Books are humanity in print.
BARBARA TUCHMANModern historians have suggested that in his last years he (Richard II) was overtaken by mental disease, but that is only a modern view of the malfunction common to 14th century rulers: inability to inhibit impulse.
More Barbara Tuchman Quotes
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The conduct of war was so much more interesting than its prevention.
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The costliest myth of our time has been the myth of the Communist monolith.
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Russians, in the knowledge of inexhaustible supplies of manpower, are accustomed to accepting gigantic fatalities with comparative calm.
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To a historian libraries are food, shelter, and even muse. They are of two kinds: the library of published material, books, pamphlets, periodicals, and the archive of unpublished papers and documents.
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The fact of being reported increases the apparent extent of a deplorable development by a factor of ten.
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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 and, faced with the choice to acquiesce or resist, took less than three hours to make her decision, knowing it might be mortal.
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Every successful revolution puts on in time the robes of the tyrant it has deposed.
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In individuals as in nations, contentment is silent, which tends to unbalance the historical record.
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The poets have familiarized more people with history than have the historians.
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Above all, discard the irrelevant.
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One constant among the elements of 1914—as of any era—was the disposition of everyone on all sides not to prepare for the harder alternative, not to act upon what they suspected to be true.
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Honor wears different coats to different eyes.
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If power corrupts, weakness in the seat of power, with its constant necessity of deals and bribes and compromising arrangements,corrupts even more.
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I have always felt like an artist when I work on a book. I see no reason why the word should always be confined to writers of fiction and poetry.
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Books are humanity in print.
BARBARA TUCHMAN






