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Barbara Tuchman

Barbara Tuchman Quotes

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Famous Barbara Tuchman Quotes

“His (Deschamps') complaint of court life was the same as is made of government at the top in any age: it was composed of hypocrisy, flattery, lying, paying and betraying; it was where calumny and cupidity reigned, common sense lacked, truth dared not appear, and where to survive one had to be deaf, blind, and dumb.”

MadeGovernmentAgeLyingCommonBlindCourtCommon SenseDumbHypocrisyBetrayComplaintsFlatteryDeafCalumny
Book:A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
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“In America, where the electoral process is drowning in commercial techniques of fund-raising and image-making, we may have completed a circle back to a selection process as unconcerned with qualifications as that which made Darius King of Persia. ... he whose horse was the first to neigh at sunrise should be King.”

ShouldFirstsMayMadeGovernmentAmericaPoliticsProcessKingsHorseTechniqueCirclesFundSunriseSelectionDrowningQualificationsPersiaUnconcernedElectoral ProcessDarius
Author:Barbara Tuchman
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“Wooden-headedness, the source of self-deception, is a factor that plays a remarkably large role in government. It consists in assessing a situation in terms of preconceived fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. It is acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts.”

ThinkingSelfPlayFactsGovernmentWishTermActingSituationRolesSourceNotionOneselfContraryFactorsDeceptionFixedAllowingSelf DeceptionWishful ThinkingRejectingAssessing
Book:The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam
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“Policy is formed by preconceptions, by long implanted biases. When information is relayed to policy-makers, they respond in terms of what is already inside their heads and consequently make policy less to fit the facts than to fit the notions and intentions formed out of the mental baggage that has accumulated in their minds since childhood.”

MindLongFactsGovernmentTermChildhoodInformationPolicyFitIntentionNotionMakersBaggagePreconceptionsPolicy Makers
Author:Barbara Tuchman
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“Chief among the forces affecting political folly is lust for power, named by Tacitus as "the most flagrant of all the passions." Because it can only be satisfied by power over others, government is its favorite field of exercise. Business offers a kind of power, but only to the very successful at the top, and without the dominion and titles and red carpets and motorcycle escorts of public office.”

KindGovernmentPoliticalPassionForceSuccessfulFieldsExerciseOffersOfficeRedLustSatisfiedChiefsTitlesFollyCarpetDominionMotorcycleRed CarpetPublic OfficeLust For PowerPower Over Others
Book:The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam
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