A. J. P. Taylor Quotes
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No matter what political reasons are given for war, the underlying reason is always economic.
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A master of improvised speech and improvised policies.
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Nothing is inevitable until it happens.
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He was what I often think is a dangerous thing for a statesman to be - a student of history; and like most of those who study history, he learned from the mistakes of the past how to make new ones.
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In 1917 European history, in the old sense, came to an end. World history began. It was the year of Lenin and Woodrow Wilson, both of whom repudiated the traditional standards of political behaviour. Both preached Utopia, Heaven on Earth. It was the moment of birth for our contemporary world.
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Human blunders usually do more to shape history than human wickedness.
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No war is inevitable until it breaks out.
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Like most of those who study history, he (Napoleon III) learned from the mistakes of the past how to make new ones.
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Manchester has everything but good looks..., the only place in England which escapes our characteristic vice of snobbery.
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The crusade against Communism was even more imaginary than the specter of Communism.
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The present enables us to understand the past, not the other way round.
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In my opinion we learn nothing from history except the infinite variety of men’s behaviour. We study it, as we listen to music or read poetry, for pleasure, not for instruction
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The greatest problem about old age is the fear that it may go on too long.
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Psychoanalysts believe that the only 'normal' people are those who cause no trouble either to themselves or anyone else.
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A racing tipster who only reached Hitler's level of accuracy would not do well for his clients.
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Lenin was the first to discover that capitalism 'inevitably' caused war; and he discovered this only when the First World War was already being fought. Of course he was right. Since every great state was capitalist in 1914.
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There is nothing more agreeable in life than to make peace with the Establishment - and nothing more corrupting.
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The First World War had begun - imposed on the statesmen of Europe by railway timetables. It was an unexpected climax to the railway age.
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I was a narrative historian, believing more and more as I matured that the first function of the historian was to answer the child's question, 'What happened next?'
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In my opinion, most of the great men of the past were only there for the beer - the wealth, prestige and grandeur that went with the power.
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The great armies, accumulated to provide security and preserve the peace, carried the nations to war by their own weight.
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Fascism was little more than terrorist rule by corrupt gangsters. Mussolini was not corrupt himself but he did nothing except to rage impotently.
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Taylor's Law states: 'The Foreign Office knows no secrets.'
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Conformity may give you a quiet life; it may even bring you to a University Chair. But all change in history, all advance, comes from the nonconformists. If there had been no trouble-makers, no Dissenters, we should still be living in caves.