Doctrine tied itself into infinite knots over the realities of sex. Barbara Tuchman More Quotes by Barbara Tuchman More Quotes From Barbara Tuchman 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 Diplomacy means all the wicked devices of the Old World, spheres of influence, balances of power, secret treaties, triple alliances, and, during the interim period, appeasement of Fascism. Barbara Tuchman power secret mean To put away one's own original thoughts in order to take up a book is a sin against the Holy Ghost. Barbara Tuchman original-thought order book No more distressing moment can ever face a British government than that which requires it to come to a hard, fast and specific decision. Barbara Tuchman government decision faces More than a code of manners in war and love, Chivalry was a moral system, governing the whole of noble life. Barbara Tuchman knighthood and-love war Learning from experience is a faculty almost never practiced Barbara Tuchman faculty learning teaching To ensure that no one gained an advantage over anyone else, commercial law prohibited innovation in tools or techniques, underselling below a fixed price, working late by artificial light, employing extra apprentices or wife and under-age children, and advertising of wares or praising them to the detriment of others. Barbara Tuchman light law children Vainglory, however, no matter how much medieval Christianity insisted it was a sin, is a motor of mankind, no more eradicable than sex. Barbara Tuchman sin matter sex The reality of a question is inevitably more complicated than we would like to suppose. Barbara Tuchman complicated reality Fateful moments tend to evoke grandeur of speech, especially in French. Barbara Tuchman evoke speech moments To a historian libraries are food, shelter, and even muse. Barbara Tuchman muse library shelter That the Jews were unholy was a belief so ingrained by the Church [by the 14th century] that the most devout persons were the harshest in their antipathy, none more so than St. Louis. Barbara Tuchman century church belief The Church [in the 14th century] gave ceremony and dignity to lives that had little of either. It was the source of beauty and art to which all had some access and which many helped to create. Barbara Tuchman church littles art The clergy [in the 14th century] on the whole were probably no more lecherous or greedy or untrustworthy than other men, but because they were supposed to be better or nearer to God than other men, their failings attracted more attention. Barbara Tuchman untrustworthy attention men The Hundred Years' War, like the crises of the Church in the same period, broke apart medieval unity. Barbara Tuchman unity war years The muffled tongue of Big Ben tolled nine by the clock as the cortege left the palace, but on history's clock it was sunset, and the sun of the old world was setting in a dying blaze of splendor never to be seen again. Barbara Tuchman sunset dying world For belligerent purposes, the 14th century, like the 20th, commanded a technology more sophisticated than the mental and moral capacity that guided its use. Barbara Tuchman technology purpose use Human beings of any age need to approve of themselves; the bad times in history come when they cannot. Barbara Tuchman bad-times age needs Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. Without books, the development of civilization would have been impossible. They are engines of change, windows on the world, and (as a poet has said) "lighthouses erected in the sea of time." They are companions , teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind. Books are humanity in print. Barbara Tuchman humanity teacher book Human beings, like plans, prove fallible in the presence of those ingredients that are missing in maneuvers - danger, death, and live ammunition. Barbara Tuchman ingredients danger missing
