[T]he obverse of facile emotion in the 14th century was a general insensitivity to the spectacle of pain and death.
BARBARA TUCHMANA phenomenon noticeable throughout history regardless of place or period is the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests.
More Barbara Tuchman Quotes
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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 rise of the Western capitalist economy and the building of private fortunes-and it was based on the sin of usury.
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The 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.
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Human beings of any age need to approve of themselves; the bad times in history come when they cannot.
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In the United States we have a society pervaded from top to bottom by contempt for the law.
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Honor wears different coats to different eyes.
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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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Christianity in its ideas was never the art of the possible.
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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.
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The appetite for power is old and irrepressible in humankind, and in its action almost always destructive.
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The fleet sailed to its war base in the North Sea, headed not so much for some rendezvous with glory as for rendezvous with discretion.
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An essential element for good writing is a good ear: One must listen to the sound of one’s own prose.
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Above all, discard the irrelevant.
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Vainglory, however, no matter how much medieval Christianity insisted it was a sin, is a motor of mankind, no more eradicable than sex.
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If I had taken a doctoral degree, it would have stifled any writing capacity.
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I want the reader to turn the page and keep on turning to the end.
BARBARA TUCHMAN