A. J. P. Taylor Quotes

39 Sourced Quotes

Human blunders, however, usually do more to shape history than human wickedness.

A. J. P. Taylor
A racing tipster who only reached Hitler's level of accuracy would not do well for his clients.

A. J. P. Taylor
In my opinion, most of the great men of the past were only there for the beer – the wealth, prestige and grandeur that went with the power.

A. J. P. Taylor
Like most of those who study history, he [Napoleon III] learned from the mistakes of the past how to make new ones.

A. J. P. Taylor
The crusade against Communism was even more imaginary than the spectre of Communism.

A. J. P. Taylor
The First World War had begun – imposed on the statesmen of Europe by railway timetables. It was an unexpected climax to the railway age.

A. J. P. Taylor
The politician performs upon the stage; the historian looks behind the scenery.

A. J. P. Taylor
Appeasement was a sensible course, even though it was tried with the wrong man; and it remains the noblest word in the diplomatist's vocabulary.

A. J. P. Taylor
Conformity may give you a quiet life; it may even bring you to a University Chair. But all change in history, all advance, comes from the nonconformists. If there had been no trouble-makers, no Dissenters, we should still be living in caves.

A. J. P. Taylor
The magic of Shaw's words may still bewitch posterity…but it will find that he has nothing to say.

A. J. P. Taylor
In the Second World War the British people came of age. This was a people's war…Few now sang Land of Hope and Glory. Few even sang England Arise. England had risen all the same.

A. J. P. Taylor
Without democracy socialism would be worth nothing, but democracy is worth a great deal even when it is not socialist.

A. J. P. Taylor
Civilization was held together by the civilized behaviour of ordinary people… In reality the masses were calmer and more sensible than those who ruled over them.
Of the period after the First World War

A. J. P. Taylor
Bismarck fought 'necessary' wars and killed thousands, the idealists of the twentieth century fight 'just' wars and kill millions.

A. J. P. Taylor
The greatest problem about old age is the fear that it may go on too long.

A. J. P. Taylor
A great showman whose technique improved as the real situation deteriorated.
Of mussolini

A. J. P. Taylor
American statesmen might like some Europeans more than others and even detect quaint resemblances to their own outlook; but they no more committed themselves to a particular group or country than a nineteenth-century missionary committed himself to the African tribe in which he happened to find himself.

A. J. P. Taylor
If men are to respect each other for what they are, they must cease to respect each other for what they own.

A. J. P. Taylor
All other forms of history - economic history, social history, psychological history, above all sociology - seem to me history with the history left out.

A. J. P. Taylor
Lenin was the first to discover that capitalism 'inevitably' caused war; and he discovered this only when the First World War was already being fought. Of course he was right. Since every great state was capitalist in 1914.

A. J. P. Taylor
When I write I have no loyalty except to historical truth as I see it and care no more about British achievements and mistakes than any other.

A. J. P. Taylor
In my opinion we learn nothing from history except the infinite variety of men's behaviour. We study it, as we listen to music or read poetry, for pleasure, not for instruction

A. J. P. Taylor
In 1917 European history, in the old sense, came to an end. World history began. It was the year of Lenin and Woodrow Wilson, both of whom repudiated the traditional standards of political behaviour. Both preached Utopia, Heaven on Earth. It was the moment of birth for our contemporary world.

A. J. P. Taylor
The worker is by nature less imaginative, more level-headed than the capitalist. This is what prevents his becoming one. He is content with small gains. Trade Union officials think about the petty cash; the employer speculates in millions. You can see the difference in their representative institutions. There is no scheme too wild, no rumour too absurd, to be without repercussions on the Stock Exchange. The public house is the home of common sense.

A. J. P. Taylor
Like Johnson's friend Edwards, I, too have tried to be a Marxist but common sense kept breaking in.

A. J. P. Taylor
The present enables us to understand the past, not the other way round.

A. J. P. Taylor
The great armies, accumulated to provide security and preserve the peace, carried the nations to war by their own weight.

A. J. P. Taylor
If there had been a strong democratic sentiment in Germany, Hitler would never have come to power. [Germans] deserved what they got when they went round crying for a hero.

A. J. P. Taylor
The glories of his revolutionary triumph pale before the nobility of his later defeats.
On trotsky

A. J. P. Taylor
Interviewer: I hear you have strong political views.
Taylor: No. Extreme views, weakly held.

A. J. P. Taylor