Above all, discard the irrelevant. Barbara Tuchman More Quotes by Barbara Tuchman More Quotes From Barbara Tuchman Disaster is rarely as pervasive as it seems from recorded accounts. The fact of being on the record makes it appear continuous and ubiquitous whereas it is more likely to have been sporadic both in time and place. Barbara Tuchman disaster records facts We seem to be afflicted by a widespread and eroding reluctance to take any stand on any values, moral, behavioral or esthetic. Barbara Tuchman reluctance moral seems To be right and overruled is not forgiven to persons in responsible positions. Barbara Tuchman forgiven responsible position Rome had Caesar, a man of remarkable governing talents, although it must be said that a ruler who arouses opponents to resort to assassination is probably not as smart as he ought to be. Barbara Tuchman rome smart men The fact of being reported increases the apparent extent of a deplorable development by a factor of ten. Barbara Tuchman development tragedy facts Of all the ills that our poor ... society is heir to, the focal one, it seems to me, from which so much of our uneasiness and confusion derive, is the absence of standards. Barbara Tuchman heirs confusion absence Christianity in its ideas was never the art of the possible. Barbara Tuchman christianity ideas art The poets have familiarized more people with history than have the historians. Barbara Tuchman poetry history people The costliest myth of our time has been the myth of the Communist monolith. Barbara Tuchman communist myth communism In a country where misery and want were the foundation of the social structure, famine was periodic, death from starvation common, disease pervasive, thievery normal, and graft and corruption taken for granted, the elimination of these conditions in Communist China is so striking that negative aspects of the new rule fade in relative importance. Barbara Tuchman taken country death 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. Barbara Tuchman knowing kings hero 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. Barbara Tuchman europe war world To gain victory over the flesh was the purpose of fasting and celibacy, which denied the pleasures of this world for the sake of reward in the next. Barbara Tuchman fasting victory purpose The nastiness of women [in the 14th century] was generally perceived at the close of life when a man began to worry about hell, and his sexual desire in any case fading. Barbara Tuchman women desire worry Russians, in the knowledge of inexhaustible supplies of manpower, are accustomed to accepting gigantic fatalities with comparative calm. Barbara Tuchman supplies calm accepting The Germans could not get over the perfidy of it. It was unbelievable that the English, having degenerated to the stage where suffragettes heckled the Prime Minister and defied the police, were going to fight. Barbara Tuchman police fighting history The unrecorded past is none other than our old friend, the tree in the primeval forest which fell without being heard Barbara Tuchman tree history past The open frontier, the hardships of homesteading from scratch, the wealth of natural resources, the whole vast challenge of a continent waiting to be exploited, combined to produce a prevailing materialism and an American drive bent as much, if not more, on money, property, and power than was true of the Old World from which we had fled. Barbara Tuchman money challenges waiting bureaucracy, safely repeating today what it did yesterday, rolls on as ineluctably as some vast computer, which, once penetrated by error, duplicates it forever. Barbara Tuchman errors yesterday forever It is wiser, I believe, to arrive at theory by way of evidence rather than the other way around.... It is more rewarding, in any case, to assemble the facts first and, in the process of arranging them in narrative form, to discover a theory or a historical generalization emerging of its own accord. Barbara Tuchman atheism historical believe
