A. J. P. Taylor Quotes

Quotes about:

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

  A. J. P. Taylor

  Peace, War, Political

  67 Copy quote

• 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

  71 Copy quote

• 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

  Giving, Caves, May

  "The Trouble Makers: Dissent over Foreign Policy, 1792-1939". Book by A. J. P. Taylor, "The Radical Tradition: Fox, Paine, and Cobbett", p. 14, 1957.

  55 Copy quote

• 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

  Past, Names, People

  45 Copy quote

• 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

  War, Fighting, Able

  A.J.P. Taylor (1996). “Origin Of The Second World War”, p.18, Simon and Schuster

  38 Copy quote

• 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

  Men, Respect Each Other, Ifs

  'Politicians, Socialism and Historians' (1980) ch. 33

  59 Copy quote

• Knowledge breeds doubt, not certainty,
  And the more we know the more uncertain we become.

  A. J. P. Taylor

  Doubt, Uncertain, Certainty

  6 Copy quote

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

  A. J. P. Taylor

  War, Fighting, Bismarck

  35 Copy quote

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

  A. J. P. Taylor

  Peace, War, Army

  A J P Taylor (1974). “The First World War: An Illustrated History”, p.15, Penguin UK

  53 Copy quote

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

  A. J. P. Taylor

  History, Events, Convincing

  36 Copy quote

• 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

  Years, Political, Heaven

  "The First World War". Book by A. J. P. Taylor , p. 165, 1963.

  35 Copy quote

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

  A. J. P. Taylor

  Past, Way, Rounds

  "The Trouble Makers: Dissent over Foreign Policy, 1792-1939". Book by A. J. P. Taylor, 1957.

  30 Copy quote

• No war is inevitable until it breaks out.

  A. J. P. Taylor

  Peace, War, Break Out

  7 Copy quote

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

  A. J. P. Taylor

  Witty, War, History

  'The Origins of the Second World War' (1961) ch. 10

  31 Copy quote

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

  A. J. P. Taylor

  Peace, Ubuntu, Establishment

  27 Copy quote

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

  A. J. P. Taylor

  Winning, History, Doe

  15 Copy quote

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

  A. J. P. Taylor

  Freedom, Differences, Caves

  19 Copy quote

• The crusade against Communism was even more imaginary than the specter of Communism.

  A. J. P. Taylor

  Fake People, Communism, Crusades

  Origins of the Second World War (1962) ch. 2

  18 Copy quote

• Like most of those who study history, he (Napoleon III) learned from the mistakes of the past how to make new ones.

  A. J. P. Taylor

  Mistake, Past, Studying History

  'Listener' 6 June 1963

  6 Copy quote

• In my opinion we learn nothing from history except the infinite variety of men's behaviour. We study it, as we listen to music or read poetry, for pleasure, not for instruction.

  A. J. P. Taylor

  Men, Behaviour, Opinion

  "The Trouble Makers: Dissent over Foreign Policy, 1792-1939". Book by A. J. P. Taylor, "The Radical Tradition: Fox, Paine, and Cobbett", p 34, 1957.

  8 Copy quote

• Fascism was little more than terrorist rule by corrupt gangsters. Mussolini was not corrupt himself but he did nothing except to rage impotently.

  A. J. P. Taylor

  Littles, Rage, Fascism

  14 Copy quote

• A master of improvised speech and improvised policies.

  A. J. P. Taylor

  Judging, Speech, Masters

  A. J. P. Taylor (2001). “English History 1914-1945”, p.5, Oxford Paperbacks

  20 Copy quote

• 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

  Country, Successful, Reality

  22 Copy quote

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

  A. J. P. Taylor

  Vices, Looks, England

  22 Copy quote

• 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

  Running, Regret, Past

  "The Trouble Makers: Dissent over Foreign Policy, 1792-1939". Book by A. J. P. Taylor, "The Radical Tradition: Fox, Paine, and Cobbett", p. 14, 1957.

  22 Copy quote

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