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

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
Kill
Bismarck
Necessary
Idealists
Fight
Idealist
Century
Twentieth
Millions
Fought
Fighting
Wars
War
Killed
Thousands

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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.
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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.
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The Foreign Office knows no secrets.
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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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A racing tipster who only reached Hitler's level of accuracy would not do well for his clients.
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Fascism was little more than terrorist rule by corrupt gangsters. Mussolini was not corrupt himself but he did nothing except to rage impotently.
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If there had been no troublemakers, no Dissenters, we should still be living in caves.
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If men are to respect each other for what they are, they must cease to respect each other for what they own.
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The crusade against Communism was even more imaginary than the specter of Communism.
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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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There is nothing more agreeable in life than to make peace with the establishment and nothing more corrupting.
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In my opinion, most of the great men of the past were only there for the beer - the wealth, prestige and grandeur that went with the power.
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Psychoanalysts believe that the only normal people are those who cause not trouble to either themselves or anyone else.
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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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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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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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Perfect soldier, perfect gentleman never gave offence to anyone not even the enemy.
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All other forms of history - economic history, social history, psychological history, above all sociology - seem to me history with the history left out.
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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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The present enables us to understand the past, not the other way round.
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