To a historian libraries are food, shelter, and even muse.
BARBARA TUCHMANThe nastiness of women [in the 14th century] was generally perceived at the close of life when a man began to worry about hell, and his sexual desire in any case fading.
More Barbara Tuchman Quotes
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To put away one’s own original thoughts in order to take up a book is a sin against the Holy Ghost.
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Above all, discard the irrelevant.
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In individuals as in nations, contentment is silent, which tends to unbalance the historical record.
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To gain victory over the flesh was the purpose of fasting and celibacy, which denied the pleasures of this world for the sake of reward in the next.
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Voluntary self-directed religion was more dangerous to the Church than any number of infidels.
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in the midst of war and crisis nothing is as clear or as certain as it appears in hindsight
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Business, like a jackal, trotted on the heels of war.
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The better part of valor is to spend it learning to live with differences, however hostile, unless and until we can find another planet.
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The story and study of the past, both recent and distant, will not reveal the future, but it flashes beacon lights along the way and it is a useful nostrum against despair.
BARBARA TUCHMAN -
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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satire is a wrapping of exaggeration around a core of reality.
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The poets have familiarized more people with history than have the historians.
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Reasonable orders are easy enough to obey; it is capricious, bureaucratic or plain idiotic demands that form the habit of discipline.
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Words are seductive and dangerous material, to be used with caution.
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Government remains the paramount area of folly because it is there that men seek power over others – only to lose it over themselves.
BARBARA TUCHMAN