black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

An essential element for good writing is a good ear: One must listen to the sound of one’s own prose.

Barbara Tuchman

When truth and reason cannot be heard, then must presumption rule.
BARBARA TUCHMAN

Heard Presumption Reason
Russians, in the knowledge of inexhaustible supplies of manpower, are accustomed to accepting gigantic fatalities with comparative calm.
BARBARA TUCHMAN

Accepting Calm Supplies
In the midst of events there is no perspective.
BARBARA TUCHMAN

Events Midst Perspective
The poets have familiarized more people with history than have the historians.
BARBARA TUCHMAN

History People Poetry
Business, like a jackal, trotted on the heels of war.
BARBARA TUCHMAN

Heels Jackals War
Theology being the work of males, original sin was traced to the female.
BARBARA TUCHMAN

Female Males Sin
The power to command frequently causes failure to think.
BARBARA TUCHMAN

Cause Command Thinking
I want the reader to turn the page and keep on turning to the end.
BARBARA TUCHMAN

Pages Want Writing
When commerce with Moslems flourished, zeal for their massacre declined.
BARBARA TUCHMAN

Commerce Massacres Zeal
No nation in the world has so many drastic problems squeezed into so small a space, under such urgent pressure of time and heavy burden of history, as Israel.
BARBARA TUCHMAN

Country Small Space Urgent World
Nothing sickens me more than the closed door of a library.
BARBARA TUCHMAN

Closing Doors Library
The appetite for power is old and irrepressible in humankind, and in its action almost always destructive.
BARBARA TUCHMAN

Action Appetite Power
Arguments can always be found to turn desire into policy.
BARBARA TUCHMAN

Argument Desire Found
The costliest myth of our time has been the myth of the Communist monolith.
BARBARA TUCHMAN

Communism Communist Myth
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.
BARBARA TUCHMAN

Hero Kings Knowing
While husbands and lovers in the stories are of all kinds, ranging from sympathetic to disgusting, women are invariably deceivers: inconstant, unscrupulous, quarrelsome, querulous, lecherous, shameless, although not necessarily all of these at once.
BARBARA TUCHMAN

Husband Men Stories

An essential element for good writing is a good ear: One must listen to the sound of one’s own prose.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

An essential element for good writing is a good ear: One must listen to the sound of one’s own prose.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Barbara Tuchman Quotes