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Barbara Tuchman

Barbara Tuchman Quotes

Historian

Barbara Tuchman was an American historian renowned for her in-depth research and vivid narrative style. Her works covered historical events from the Roman Empire to the 20th century, with 'Guns, Germs, and Steel' and 'The Guns of August' being particularly notable.

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Famous Barbara Tuchman Quotes

“Friendship of a kind that cannot easily be reversed tomorrow must have its roots in common interests and shared beliefs.”

Kind Belief Interest Friendship Common Tomorrow Roots Common Interests

Book:notes from china

Source: notes from china

“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.”

Source: The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam

“To a historian libraries are food, shelter, and even muse. They are of two kinds: the library of published material, books, pamphlets, periodicals, and the archive of unpublished papers and documents.”

Kind Two Book Materials Paper Cooking Library Historian Shelter Documents Muse Papers Archives

Book:Practicing History: Selected Essays

Source: Practicing History: Selected Essays

“Misgovernment is of four kinds, often in combination. They are: 1) tyranny or oppression, of which history provides so many well-known examples that they do not need citing; 2) excessive ambition, such as Athens' attempted conquest of Sicily in the Peloponnesian War, Philip II's of England via the Armada, Germany's twice-attempted rule of Europe by a self-conceived master race, Japan's bid for an empire of Asia; 3) incompetence or decadence, as in the case of the late Roman empire, the last Romanovs and the last imperial dynasty of China; and finally 4) folly or perversity.”

Source: The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam

“While husbands and lovers in the stories are of all kinds, ranging from sympathetic to disgusting, women are invariably deceivers: inconstant, unscrupulous, quarrelsome, querulous, lecherous, shameless, although not necessarily all of these at once.”

Men Kind Stories Century Lovers Husband Men And Women All Kinds Disgusting Sympathetic Shameless Deceiver

Author:Barbara Tuchman