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.


"The Radical Tradition: Fox, Paine, and Cobbett", p. 14. - The Trouble Makers: Dissent over Foreign Policy, 1792-1939 (1957)

A. J. P. Taylor Quotes

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...

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...

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...

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...