A. J. P. Taylor Quotes

39 Sourced Quotes

There is nothing more agreeable in life than to make peace with the Establishment – and nothing more corrupting.

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
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
Bismarck was a political genius of the highest rank, but he lacked one essential quality of the constructive statesman: he had no faith in the future.

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

A. J. P. Taylor
Though the object of being a Great Power is to be able to fight a Great War, the only way of remaining a Great Power is not to fight one.

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

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
I was a narrative historian, believing more and more as I matured that the first function of the historian was to answer the child's question, "What happened next?"

A. J. P. Taylor
Every historian loves the past or should do. If not, he has mistaken his vocation; but it is a short step from loving the past to regretting that it has ever changed. Conservatism is our greatest trade-risk; and we run psychoanalysts close in the belief that the only "normal" people are those who cause no trouble either to themselves or anybody else.

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
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