Barbara Tuchman quotes

Business, like a jackal, trotted on the heels of war. (Barbara Tuchman)
Money was the crux. Raising money to pay the cost of war was to cause more damage to 14th century society than the physical destruction of war itself. View quote
Barbara Tuchman
Voluntary self-directed religion was more dangerous to the Church than any number of infidels. View quote
Barbara Tuchman
Nothing so comforts the military mind as the maxim of a great but dead general. View quote
Barbara Tuchman
History is the unfolding of miscalculations. View quote
Barbara Tuchman
The Hundred Years' War, like the crises of the Church in the same period, broke apart medieval unity. View quote
Barbara Tuchman
His (Deschamps') complaint of court life was the same as is made of government at the top in any age: it was composed of hypocrisy, flattery, lying, paying and betraying; it was where calumny and cupidity reigned, common sense lacked, truth dared not appear, and where to survive one had to be deaf, blind, and dumb. View quote
Barbara Tuchman
To put on the garment of legitimacy is the first aim of every coup. View quote
Barbara Tuchman
In the midst of events there is no perspective. View quote
Barbara Tuchman
If all were equalized by death, as the medieval idea constantly emphasized, was it not possible that inequalities on earth were contrary to the will of God? View quote
Barbara Tuchman
Doctrine tied itself into infinite knots over the realities of sex. (Barbara Tuchman)
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. View quote
Barbara Tuchman
Whatever solace the Christian faith could give was balanced by the anxiety it generated. View quote
Barbara Tuchman
When commerce with Moslems flourished, zeal for their massacre declined. View quote
Barbara Tuchman
The social damage was not in the failure but in the undertaking, which was expensive. The cost of war was the poison running through the 14th century. View quote
Barbara Tuchman
Nothing is more certain than death and nothing uncertain but its hour. View quote
Barbara Tuchman
When truth and reason cannot be heard, then must presumption rule. View quote
Barbara Tuchman
Governments do not like to face radical remedies; it is easier to let politics predominate. View quote
Barbara Tuchman
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. View quote
Barbara Tuchman
What is government but an arrangement by which the many accept the authority of the few? View quote
Barbara Tuchman
For most people reform meant relief from ecclesiastical extortions. (Barbara Tuchman)
That conflict between the reach for the divine and the lure of earthly things was to be the central problem of the Middle Ages. View quote
Barbara Tuchman
If it is not profitable for the common good that authority should be retained, it ought to be relinquished. View quote
Barbara Tuchman
The emphasis on sorcery reflected accusations by the authorities more than it did actual practice. Being threatened, the Church responded by virulent persecution. View quote
Barbara Tuchman
For belligerent purposes, the 14th century, like the 20th, commanded a technology more sophisticated than the mental and moral capacity that guided its use. View quote
Barbara Tuchman