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Strong prejudices in an ill-formed mind are hazardous to government, and when combined with a position of power even more so.

Barbara Tuchman

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Barbara Tuchman
Power
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satire is a wrapping of exaggeration around a core of reality.
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Human behavior is timeless.
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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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To be a bestseller is not necessarily a measure of quality, but it is a measure of communication.
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The nastiness of women [in the 14th century] was generally perceived at the close of life when a man began to worry about hell, and his sexual desire in any case fading.
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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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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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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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Arguments can always be found to turn desire into policy.
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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 April 1917 the illusion of isolation was destroyed, America came to the end of innocence, and of the exuberant freedom of bachelor independence. That the responsibilities of world power have not made us happier is no surprise. To help ourselves manage them, we have replaced the illusion of isolation with a new illusion of omnipotence.
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To be right and overruled is not forgiven to persons in responsible positions.
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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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Books are humanity in print.
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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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To put on the garment of legitimacy is the first aim of every coup.
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Nothing so comforts the military mind as the maxim of a great but dead general.
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To a historian libraries are food, shelter, and even muse.
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If power corrupts, weakness in the seat of power, with its constant necessity of deals and bribes and compromising arrangements,corrupts even more.
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