We are apt to say that a foreign policy is successful only when the country, or at any rate the governing class, is united behind it. In reality, every line of policy is repudiated by a section, often by an influential section, of the country concerned. A foreign minister who waited until everyone agreed with him would have no foreign policy at all.

A. J. P. Taylor

Categorized in : Reality Country Successful

If there had been a strong democratic sentiment in Germany, Hitler would never have come to power . [Germans] deserved what they got when they went round crying for a hero.

A. J. P. Taylor

strong hero history

No matter what political reasons are given for war, the underlying reason is always economic.

A. J. P. Taylor

political war peace

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.

A. J. P. Taylor

caves may giving

If men are to respect each other for what they are, they must cease to respect each other for what they own.

A. J. P. Taylor

respect-each-other ifs men

Knowledge breeds doubt, not certainty,

A. J. P. Taylor

certainty uncertain doubt

The great armies, accumulated to provide security and preserve the peace, carried the nations to war by their own weight.

A. J. P. Taylor

army war peace

History is not another name for the past, as many people imply. It is the name for stories about the past.

A. J. P. Taylor

names people past

Bismarck fought 'necessary' wars and killed thousands, the idealists of the twentieth century fight 'just' wars and kill millions.

A. J. P. Taylor

bismarck fighting war

Though the object of being a Great Power is to be able to fight a Great War, the only way of remaining a Great Power is not to fight one.

A. J. P. Taylor

able fighting war

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.

A. J. P. Taylor

political heaven years

History is not a catalogue but...a convincing version of events.

A. J. P. Taylor

convincing events history

Manchester has everything but good looks..., the only place in England which escapes our characteristic vice of snobbery.

A. J. P. Taylor

england vices looks

The present enables us to understand the past, not the other way round.

A. J. P. Taylor

rounds way past

Human blunders usually do more to shape history than human wickedness.

A. J. P. Taylor

witty war history

There is nothing more agreeable in life than to make peace with the establishment and nothing more corrupting.

A. J. P. Taylor

establishment ubuntu peace

Freedom does not always win. This is one of the bitterest lessons of history.

A. J. P. Taylor

winning doe history

If there had been no troublemakers, no Dissenters, we should still be living in caves.

A. J. P. Taylor

differences caves freedom

A master of improvised speech and improvised policies.

A. J. P. Taylor

speech masters judging

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.

A. J. P. Taylor

loyalty mistake writing

Every historian loves the past or should do. If not, he has mistaken his vocation; but it is a short step from loving the past to regretting that it has ever changed. Conservatism is our greatest trade-risk; and we run psychoanalysts close in the belief that the only "normal" people are those who cause no trouble either to themselves or anybody else.

A. J. P. Taylor

regret running past