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The ills and disorders of the 14th century could not be without consequence. Times were to grow worse over the next fifty-odd years until at some imperceptible moment, by the some mysterious chemistry, energies were refreshed, ideas broke out of the mold of the Middle Ages into new realms, and humanity found itself redirected.

Barbara Tuchman

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Barbara Tuchman
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More quotes by Barbara Tuchman

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Above all, discard the irrelevant.
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Learning from experience is a faculty almost never practiced
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The Hundred Years' War, like the crises of the Church in the same period, broke apart medieval unity.
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More than a code of manners in war and love, Chivalry was a moral system, governing the whole of noble life.
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To be right and overruled is not forgiven to persons in responsible positions.
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Russians, in the knowledge of inexhaustible supplies of manpower, are accustomed to accepting gigantic fatalities with comparative calm.
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In a country where misery and want were the foundation of the social structure, famine was periodic, death from starvation common, disease pervasive, thievery normal, and graft and corruption taken for granted, the elimination of these conditions in Communist China is so striking that negative aspects of the new rule fade in relative importance.
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Wooden-headedness, the source of self-deception, is a factor that plays a remarkably large role in government. It consists in assessing a situation in terms of preconceived fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. It is acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts.
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To be a bestseller is not necessarily a measure of quality, but it is a measure of communication.
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To put on the garment of legitimacy is the first aim of every coup.
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No nation in the world has so many drastic problems squeezed into so small a space, under such urgent pressure of time and heavy burden of history, as Israel.
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Nothing is more satisfying than to write a good sentence. It is no fun to write lumpishly, dully, in prose the reader must plod through like wet sand. But it is a pleasure to achieve, if one can, a clear running prose that is simple yet full of surprises. This does not just happen. It requires skill, hard work, a good ear, and continued practice.
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Government remains the paramount area of folly because it is there that men seek power over others - only to lose it over themselves.
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Modern historians have suggested that in his last years he (Richard II) was overtaken by mental disease, but that is only a modern view of the malfunction common to 14th century rulers: inability to inhibit impulse.
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Belgium, where there occurred one of the rare appearances of the hero in history, was lifted above herself by the uncomplicated conscience of her King and, faced with the choice to acquiesce or resist, took less than three hours to make her decision, knowing it might be mortal.
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Business, like a jackal, trotted on the heels of war.
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One must stop conducting research before one has finished. Otherwise, one will never stop and never finish.
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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.
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Nothing so comforts the military mind as the maxim of a great but dead general.
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If I had taken a doctoral degree, it would have stifled any writing capacity.
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