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

A. J. P. Taylor

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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
Peace
Preserve
War
Preserves
Great
Carried
Provide
Army
Weight
Accumulated
Security
Armies
Nations
Antiwar

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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.
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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.
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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.
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History is not a catalogue but...a convincing version of events.
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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?
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Freedom does not always win. This is one of the bitterest lessons of history.
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The crusade against Communism was even more imaginary than the specter of Communism.
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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.
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There is nothing more agreeable in life than to make peace with the establishment and nothing more corrupting.
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No war is inevitable until it breaks out.
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The present enables us to understand the past, not the other way round.
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If there had been no troublemakers, no Dissenters, we should still be living in caves.
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Manchester has everything but good looks..., the only place in England which escapes our characteristic vice of snobbery.
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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.
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A master of improvised speech and improvised policies.
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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.
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No matter what political reasons are given for war, the underlying reason is always economic.
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A racing tipster who only reached Hitler's level of accuracy would not do well for his clients.
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Bismarck fought 'necessary' wars and killed thousands, the idealists of the twentieth century fight 'just' wars and kill millions.
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George VI in the conventional parlance was a Good King who sacrificed his life to his sense of duty. If we are to have monarchs it would be hard to find a better one.
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