Barbara Tuchman
Barbara Tuchman
Barbara Wertheim Tuchmanwas an American historian and author. She won the Pulitzer Prize twice, for The Guns of August, a best-selling history of the prelude to and the first month of World War I, and Stilwell and the American Experience in China, a biography of General Joseph Stilwell...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionHistorian
Date of Birth30 January 1912
CountryUnited States of America
kings hero knowing
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.
males female sin
Theology being the work of males, original sin was traced to the female.
elements eras sides
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.
war europe world
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.
sex matter sin
Vainglory, however, no matter how much medieval Christianity insisted it was a sin, is a motor of mankind, no more eradicable than sex.
weakness compromise power-corrupts
If power corrupts, weakness in the seat of power, with its constant necessity of deals and bribes and compromising arrangements,corrupts even more.
interesting people effort
When people don't have an objective, there's much less dynamic effort, and that makes life a lot less interesting.
reality complicated
The reality of a question is inevitably more complicated than we would like to suppose.
war noble knighthood
More than a code of manners in war and love, Chivalry was a moral system, governing the whole of noble life...
men attention untrustworthy
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.
speech moments evoke
Fateful moments tend to evoke grandeur of speech, especially in French.
successful tyrants revolution
Every successful revolution puts on in time the robes of the tyrant it has deposed.
government decision faces
No more distressing moment can ever face a British government than that which requires it to come to a hard, fast and specific decision.
reason heard presumption
When truth and reason cannot be heard, then must presumption rule.