Barbara Tuchman Quotes

The poets have familiarized more people with history than have the historians.

Nothing sickens me more than the closed door of a library.

Human behavior is timeless.

The appetite for power is old and irrepressible in humankind, and in its action almost always destructive.

In the midst of events there is no perspective.

For most people reform meant relief from ecclesiastical extortions.

Learning from experience is a faculty almost never practiced

Completeness is rare in history.

A phenomenon noticeable throughout history regardless of place or period is the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests.

The unrecorded past is none other than our old friend, the tree in the primeval forest which fell without being heard

Doctrine tied itself into infinite knots over the realities of sex.

If all were equalized by death, as the medieval idea constantly emphasized, was it not possible that inequalities on earth were contrary to the will of God?