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I ask myself, have nations ever declined from a loss of moral sense rather than from physical reasons or the pressure of barbarians? I think that they have.

Barbara Tuchman

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Barbara Tuchman
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Fateful moments tend to evoke grandeur of speech, especially in French.
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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.
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The unrecorded past is none other than our old friend, the tree in the primeval forest which fell without being heard
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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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No female iniquity was more severely condemned than the habit of plucking eyebrows and the hairline to heighten the forehead.
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Business, like a jackal, trotted on the heels of war.
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To be right and overruled is not forgiven to persons in responsible positions.
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No economic activity was more irrepressible [in the 14th century] than the investment and lending at interest of money it was the basis for the rise of the Western capitalist economy and the building of private fortunes-and it was based on the sin of usury.
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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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satire is a wrapping of exaggeration around a core of reality.
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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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Above all, discard the irrelevant.
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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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Historians who stuff in every item of research they have found, every shoelace and telephone call of a biographical subject, are not doing the hard work of selecting and shaping a readable story.
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Human behavior is timeless.
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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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The appetite for power is old and irrepressible in humankind, and in its action almost always destructive.
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In the United States we have a society pervaded from top to bottom by contempt for the law.
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Governments do not like to face radical remedies it is easier to let politics predominate.
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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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