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ea3314d
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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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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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9112c57
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So gorgeous was the spectacle on the May morning of 1910 when nine kings rode in the funeral of Edward VII of England that the crowd, waiting in hushed and black-clad awe, could not keep back gasps of admiration. In scarlet and blue and green and purple, three by three the sovereigns rode through the palace gates, with plumed helmets, gold braid, crimson sashes, and jeweled orders flashing in the sun. After them came five heirs apparent, fo..
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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2f0a622
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Nothing so comforts the military mind as the maxim of a great but dead general.
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wwi
military
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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90410b1
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When the gap between ideal and real becomes too wide, the system breaks down.
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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46dff2e
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The muffled tongue of Big Ben tolled nine by the clock as the cortege left the palace, but on history's clock it was sunset, and the sun of the old world was setting in a dying blaze of splendor never to be seen again.
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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4196d70
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In individuals as in nations, contentment is silent, which tends to unbalance the historical record.
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historical-record
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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292cfbd
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Human beings, like plans, prove fallible in the presence of those ingredients that are missing in maneuvers - danger, death, and live ammunition.
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emotion
danger
planning
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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df3e890
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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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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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4b8d8f0
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For belligerent purposes, the 14th century, like the 20th, commanded a technology more sophisticated than the mental and moral capacity that guided its use.
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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c45c4df
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Arguments can always be found to turn desire into policy.
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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67aca3e
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An event of great agony is bearable only in the belief that it will bring about a better world. When it does not, as in the aftermath of another vast calamity in 1914-18, disillusion is deep and moves on to self-doubt and self-disgust.
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hopelessness
hope
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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b700005
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The proud tower built up through the great age of European civilization was an edifice of grandeur and passion, of riches and beauty and dark cellars. Its inhabitants lived, as compared to a later time, with more self-reliance, more confidence, more hope; greater magnificence, extravagance and elegance; more careless ease, more gaiety, more pleasure in each other's company and conversation, more injustice and hypocrisy, more misery and want..
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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0460e17
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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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mankind
sex
motivation
vainglory
vice
sin
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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50b8180
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No one is so sure of his premises as the man who knows too little.
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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a11e808
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In a dependent relationship, the protege can always control the protector by threatening to collapse.
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learned-helplessness
manipulation
passivity
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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a991a98
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the seven "liberal arts": Grammar, the foundation of science; Logic, which differentiates the true from the false; Rhetoric, the source of law; Arithmetic, the foundation of order because "without numbers there is nothing"; Geometry, the science of measurement; Astronomy, the most noble of the sciences because it is connected with Divinity and Theology; and lastly Music."
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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e402fa5
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Disaster is rarely as pervasive as it seems from recorded accounts. The fact of being on the record makes it appear continuous and ubiquitous whereas it is more likely to have been sporadic both in time and place. Besides, persistence of the normal is usually greater than the effect of the disturbance, as we know from our own times. After absorbing the news of today, one expects to face a world consisting entirely of strikes, crimes, power ..
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history
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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5a0eea2
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Chief among the forces affecting political folly is lust for power, named by Tacitus as "the most flagrant of all passions."
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politics
power
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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f7eb585
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Pessimism is a primary source of passivity,
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laziness
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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4582b49
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History was finite and contained within comprehensible limits. It began with the Creation and was scheduled to end in a not indefinitely remote future with the Second Coming, which was the hope of afflicted mankind, followed by the Day of Judgment. Within that span, man was not subject to social or moral progress because his goal was the next world, not betterment in this. In this world he was assigned to ceaseless struggle against himself ..
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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715accf
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Preconceived, fixed notions can be more damaging than cannon.
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conventional-wisdom
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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76a4058
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T]he obverse of facile emotion in the 14th century was a general insensitivity to the spectacle of pain and death.
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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cf82d22
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Little attention was paid, because the German people, no matter how hungry, remained obedient.
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distinctiveness
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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42cba9e
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The fact of being reported multiplies the apparent extent of any deplorable development by five- to tenfold.
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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7cf690c
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No one is is sure of his premise as the man who knows too little.
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humility
curiosity
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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d64f077
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When at last it was over, the war had many diverse results and one dominant one transcending all others: disillusion.
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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e9807c1
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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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king-albert
wwi
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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5adff57
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No less a bold and pugnacious figure than Winston Churchill broke down and was unable to finish his remarks at the sendoff of the British Expeditionary Force into the maelstrom of World War I in Europe.
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emotion
leadership
warfare
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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f2b0491
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Even the respectable have a small anarchist hidden on the inside.
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depravity
flesh
hypocrisy
selfishness
pride
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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e8aaf93
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The textile industry was the automobile industry of the Middle Ages,
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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64afa73
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If there have been mute inglorious Miltons in rural villages, presumably there have been unrealized Washingtons born in unpropitious times.
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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3150a10
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He never hears the truth about himself by not wishing to hear it." Pope Alexander" --
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openness
pride
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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fb8ab9a
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Had all the world been a school and Wilson its principal, he would have been the greatest statesman in history.
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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a1e5b19
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The origin of war, according to its 14th century codifier Honore Bonet, lay in Lucifer's war against God,
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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9709de6
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A phenomenon noticeable throughout history regardless of place or period is the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests. Mankind, it seems, makes a poorer performance of government than of almost any other human activity. In this sphere, wisdom, which may be defined as the exercise of judgment acting on experience, common sense and available information, is less operative and more frustrated than it should be. Why..
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wisdom-inspirational
wisdom-quotes
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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1fd283a
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SOME DAMNED FOOLISH THING in the Balkans," Bismarck had predicted, would ignite the next war. The assassination of the Austrian heir apparent, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, by Serbian nationalists on June 28, 1914, satisfied his condition."
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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010272b
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Revolutions produce other men, not new men. Halfway between truth and endless error, the mold of the species is permanent. That is Earth's burden.
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original-sin
utopia
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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44fdabc
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He wanted AFFIRMATION rather than INFORMATION.
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hooping-this
curiosity
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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9911f03
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Everything one has a right to do is not best to be done." Benjamin Franklin"
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self-indulgence
self-discipline
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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74203ba
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Fear of God is thrown away," lamented Brigitta in Rome, "and in its place is a bottomless bag of money." All the Ten Commandments, she said, had been reduced to one: "Bring hither the money."
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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469fec8
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To admit error and cut losses is rare among individuals, unknown among states. States function only in terms of what those in control perceive as power or personal ambition, and both of these wear blinkers.
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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0021205
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Once people envisioned the possibility of change in a fixed order, the end of an age of submission came in sight; the turn to individual conscience lay ahead. To that extent the Black Death may have been the unrecognized beginning of modern man.
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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2a6adc3
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Prison does not silence ideas whose time has come.
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discipleship
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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f2273ad
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Raising money to pay the cost of war was to cause more damage to 14th century society than the physical destruction of war itself.
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Barbara W. Tuchman |