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Russians, in the knowledge of inexhaustible supplies of manpower, are accustomed to accepting gigantic fatalities with comparative calm.

Barbara Tuchman

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Barbara Tuchman
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Governments do not like to face radical remedies it is easier to let politics predominate.
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To put on the garment of legitimacy is the first aim of every coup.
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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 a historian libraries are food, shelter, and even muse.
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The costliest myth of our time has been the myth of the Communist monolith.
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Every successful revolution puts on in time the robes of the tyrant it has deposed.
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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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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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Strong prejudices in an ill-formed mind are hazardous to government, and when combined with a position of power even more so.
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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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To be a bestseller is not necessarily a measure of quality, but it is a measure of communication.
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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.
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The fleet sailed to its war base in the North Sea, headed not so much for some rendezvous with glory as for rendezvous with discretion.
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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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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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