Quote

No war is inevitable until it breaks out.

A. J. P. Taylor

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

A. J. P. Taylor
Age: 84 †
Born: 1906
Born: March 25
Died: 1990
Died: September 7
Historian
Historian Of The Modern Age
Journalist
University Teacher
Alan John Percivale Taylor
Break
Peace
War
Antiwar
Breaks
Inevitable

More quotes by A. J. P. Taylor

Image
There is nothing nicer than nodding off while reading. Going fast asleep and then being woken by the crash of the book on the floor, then saying to yourself, well it doesn't matter much. An admirable feeling.
A. J. P. Taylor
Image
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
Image
When I write I have no loyalty except to historical truth as I see it and care no more about British achievements and mistakes than any other.
A. J. P. Taylor
Image
Bismarck fought 'necessary' wars and killed thousands, the idealists of the twentieth century fight 'just' wars and kill millions.
A. J. P. Taylor
Image
I was a narrative historian, believing more and more as I matured that the first function of the historian was to answer the child's question, What happened next?
A. J. P. Taylor
Image
The greatest problem about old age is the fear that it may go on too long.
A. J. P. Taylor
Image
The great armies, accumulated to provide security and preserve the peace, carried the nations to war by their own weight.
A. J. P. Taylor
Image
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
Image
Perfect soldier, perfect gentleman never gave offence to anyone not even the enemy.
A. J. P. Taylor
Image
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
Image
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
Image
Freedom does not always win. This is one of the bitterest lessons of history.
A. J. P. Taylor
Image
No matter what political reasons are given for war, the underlying reason is always economic.
A. J. P. Taylor
Image
History gets thicker as it approaches recent times: more people, more events, and more books written about them. More evidence is preserved, often, one is tempted to say, too much. Decay and destruction have hardly begun their beneficent work.
A. J. P. Taylor
Image
We learn nothing from history except the infinite variety of men's behaviour.
A. J. P. Taylor
Image
One of the penalties of being president of the United States is that you must subsist for four years without drinking anything except Californian wine.
A. J. P. Taylor
Image
All other forms of history - economic history, social history, psychological history, above all sociology - seem to me history with the history left out.
A. J. P. Taylor
Image
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
Image
Knowledge breeds doubt, not certainty, And the more we know the more uncertain we become.
A. J. P. Taylor
Image
The male clerk with his quill pen and copper-plate handwriting had gone for good. The female short-hand typist took his place. It was a decisive moment in women's emancipation.
A. J. P. Taylor