A. J. P. Taylor Quotes - Page 2

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.

History gets thicker as it approaches recent times: more people, more events, and more books written about them. More evidence is preserved, often, one is tempted to say, too much. Decay and destruction have hardly begun their beneficent work.

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?

When I write I have no loyalty except to historical truth as I see it and care no more about British achievements and mistakes than any other.

There is nothing nicer than nodding off while reading. Going fast asleep and then being woken by the crash of the book on the floor, then saying to yourself, well it doesn't matter much. An admirable feeling.

Psychoanalysts believe that the only "normal" people are those who cause not trouble to either themselves or anyone else.

The greatest problem about old age is the fear that it may go on too long.

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.

History is the great propagator of doubt.

The male clerk with his quill pen and copper-plate handwriting had gone for good. The female short-hand typist took his place. It was a decisive moment in women's emancipation.

A racing tipster who only reached Hitler's level of accuracy would not do well for his clients.

American statesmen might like some Europeans more than others and even detect quaint resemblances to their own outlook; but they no more committed themselves to a particular group or country than a nineteenth-century missionary committed himself to the African tribe in which he happened to find himself.

One of the penalties of being president of the United States is that you must subsist for four years without drinking anything except Californian wine.

Rather an end in horror, than horror without end. He could not condemn principles he might need to invoke and apply later. The wolf cannot help having been created by God as he is, but we shoot him all the same if we have to. The great player in diplomacy, as in chess, asks the question,Does this improve me?, not look at the possible fringe benefits If you can't have what you like, you must like what you have.

All other forms of history - economic history, social history, psychological history, above all sociology - seem to me history with the history left out.

Perfect soldier, perfect gentleman never gave offence to anyone not even the enemy.

We learn nothing from history except the infinite variety of men's behaviour.

The God of Battles will throw the dice that decide.

George VI in the conventional parlance was a Good King who sacrificed his life to his sense of duty. If we are to have monarchs it would be hard to find a better one.

The Foreign Office knows no secrets.