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A. J. P. Taylor

74 quotes

“A revolution cannot be judged by the ordinary standards of academic morality.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Review of a biography of Maximilien Robespierre in The Manchester Guardian (14 January 1936), quoted in Adam Sisman, A. J. P. Taylor: A Biography (1994; 1995), p. 104
“The details of diplomatic history do indeed seem of irredeemable triviality; but in fact, diplomatic history deals with the greatest of themes – with the relations of States, with peace and war, with the existence and destruction of communities and civilization.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Diplomatic History', The Manchester Guardian (23 May 1939), p. 17
“The object of policy is not to prove one's moral worth, but to succeed.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Time and Tide (23 May 1942), quoted in Chris Wrigley, A.J.P. Taylor: A Complete Annotated Bibliography and Guide to His Historical and Other Writings (1980), p. 284
“The history of the Germans is a history of extremes. It contains everything except moderation, and in the course of a thousand years the Germans have experienced everything except normality.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The failure of the "good Germans," not the ranting of the "bad" ones, was the real crime of Germany against European civilization.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is the theme which has run through European history since the French Revolution—the search for stability in an unstable world. The great revolution destroyed tradition as the basis for society; ever since men have been seeking for something to take its place.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From Napoleon to Stalin: Comments on European History (1950; 1953), p. 9
“Human reason is the only saviour we have... We need more education, not less; more science, not less; more hope for the future, and more confidence in it.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'My Religion', Daily Herald (10 January 1953), p. 5
“The Communist Party is not concerned with peace or with better conditions; it is only concerned with power. It exploits everyone, including its own members, for this purpose.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Conversion', New Statesman and Nation (14 February 1953), p. 185-186
“National freedom is as important as economic freedom or the freedom of the individual.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'We're the hypocrites about this!', Daily Herald (28 February 1953), p. 3
“I am against inequality of the sexes, as much as I am against class privilege or colour prejudice.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Women Prefer To Be Slaves!', Daily Herald (21 March 1953), p. 3
“The United States remains a country where there is trial by jury and more freedom of expression of every sort of opinion than anywhere else in the world – including England.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Does today mean nothing to you?', Daily Herald (4 July 1953), p. 4
“War must come into the record of history, whatever else is left out. It has been the greatest single factor in the shaping of human history.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Ding-Dong', The Observer (23 May 1954), p. 8
“Quakerism has always been in danger of smugness, and is redeemed from it only by an obstinate radicalism.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Review of Viscount Templewood's Nine Troubled Years in the Manchester Guardian (13 November 1954), quoted in Chris Wrigley, A.J.P. Taylor: A Complete Annotated Bibliography and Guide to His Historical and Other Writings…
“Once hitch yourself to the Establishment and you must become the supporter of injustice sooner or later.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'The Affair', New Statesman and Nation (23 April 1955), p. 586
“The things that really matter have nothing to do with politics. Love between friends. Good books. The beauties of nature.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'I'd rather look at a lovely view than march on May Day', Daily Herald (4 May 1955), p. 4
“Maxton's failure was more than the failure of a man. It was the failure of a movement – the movement of romantic revolutionary socialism. Keir Hardie, Maxton's predecessor, could combine romance and reality... Revolutionary Socialism turned into the Bolshevik dictatorship; parliamentary Socialism achieved the practical gains of the Welfare State. There was no third way between Lenin and Arthur Henderson.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'A Wasted Life', The Observer (15 May 1955), p. 16
“I am not a philosophic historian. I have no system, no moral interpretation. I write to clear my mind, to discover how things happened and how men behaved. If the result is shocking or provocative, this is not from intent, but solely because I try to judge from the evidence without being influenced by the judgements of others.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Englishmen and Others (1956), p. vii
“The massacre of Peterloo shook the moral prestige of the old order as nothing else had done; and English democracy owes a lasting debt to the eleven martyrs of St. Peter's Fields.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'An English Massacre', The Observer (2 March 1958), p. 16
“In my experience Communism is intellectual alcohol – nasty and harmful if taken neat, but an essential ingredient of every stimulating drink.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Babe in the Wood', New Statesman (31 October 1959), p. 592
“In essence, Toryism rests on doubt in human nature; it distrusts improvement, clings to traditional institutions, prefers the past to the future. It is a sentiment rather than a principle.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The traditional "liberties of England" rested on law and custom, not on rational dogma; and the man who maintained them, as in Poland or Hungary, was the country squire. He maintained them no doubt for his own profit and advantage, a point which Feiling is inclined to slide over; still England would not be a free country without him. The unique feature of our history is that the conservative defender of liberty had to take other classes into partnership, and finally indeed found himself in the position of a tolerated minority.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From Luther to Hitler the Germans have always wanted an iron framework of discipline to keep them in reasonable order; when they lose this, they go mad, as Nietzsche did, and it was only to be expected that the Germans would follow his example rather than his teaching.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the last resort the national question is not a question of schools or of government officials—these are mere preliminaries. It is a question of power. Men wish to decide their own destinies. In a national State this leads them to resist kings and emperors and to demand democracy. In a multinational State they resist the rule of other nationalities as well.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1906–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1906–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1906–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The present enables us to understand the past, not the other way round.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1906–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1906–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Communists have no principle or belief except the seizure of power by their party.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'The Second Munich', New Statesman (20 February 1960), pp. 260-261
“The New Deal was the nearest thing to a revolution ever carried out in a democracy.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Men at Work', The Observer (8 May 1960), p. 23
“Why should knowledge of where I came from tell me where I am going to?”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Moving with the Times', The Observer (22 October 1961)
“He detested titles. This, no doubt, is why he distributed them so lavishly.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On David Lloyd George.Lloyd George, (1961) p. 6
“Politically we are not Europeans and never have been.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Why don't these ‘Top People’ think for themselves?', The Sunday Express (21 October 1962), p. 16
“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 (1906–1990) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The First World War ([1963] 1970) p. 20
“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 (1906–1990) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The First World War ([1963] 1970) p. 165
“Like most of those who study history, he learned from the mistakes of the past how to make new ones.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Referring to Napoleon III, in "Mistaken Lessons from the Past", The Listener (6 June 1963)
“The great underlying conflict was between freedom and organization. Could the war be conducted by 'Liberal' methods—that is, by voluntary recruiting and by laissez-faire economics? Or must there be compulsory military service, control of profits, and direction of labour and industry?”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Politics in the First World War', Politics in Wartime and Other Essays (1965), p. 21
“The Commune was...heroic, with its strange mixture of patriotism and working class idealism, a mixture which no historian will ever clearly resolve.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Martyrdom of Paris', The Observer (7 November 1965), p. 26
“I think you can say that the British were more responsible than anyone for the destruction of Nazism and Fascism in Europe.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: World War (n.d. but 1966), p. 7
“The peace of the world depends on American strength and, still more, on American restraint.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Peace Comes of Age', The New York Times Magazine (14 August 1966), p. 72
“Economic planning from above can be carried out in peacetime only by the aid of fines, prisons, and ultimately concentration camps.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Should we hail Cousins as a hero?', The Sunday Express (11 September 1966), p. 16
“[The Common Market] is a political device for creating a European alliance by a back door... From feebleness, folly or sheer blindness, they are betraying all that has made us great over the centuries.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'The awkward truth that no one wants to face', The Sunday Express (14 May 1967), p. 14
“CARD (Campaign Against Racial Discrimination) should be by now a bigger movement than CND at its biggest. It isn't. We have all turned cowards.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Labour's First Year: A Review Of The Government's Record. Radicals Comment on the Anniversary', New Statesman (15 October 1967), p. 557
“We too should be true to our tradition. That tradition is one of national independence and Splendid Isolation.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Will Germany be the next to explode?', The Sunday Express (2 June 1968), p. 14
“The revolt of the agricultural labourers in 1830 was the greatest manifestation by the English people between Monmouth's rebellion and the General Strike.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Revolt of the secret people', The Observer (9 February 1969), p. 29
“[Hitler] aimed to make Germany the dominant Power in Europe and maybe, more remotely, in the world. Other Powers have pursued similar aims, and still do. Other Powers seek to defend their vital interests by force of arms. In international affairs there was nothing wrong with Hitler except that he was a German.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Foreword, "Second Thoughts" (1963) in The Origins Of The Second World War, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996 reprint, p. xxviii, isbn: 9780684829470
“In my opinion, statesmen are too absorbed by events to follow a preconceived plan. They take one step, and the next follows from it. The systems are created by historians, as happened with Napoleon; and the systems attributed to Hitler are really those of Hugh Trevor-Roper, Elizabeth Wiskemann, and Alan Bullock.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A racing tipster who only reached Hitler's level of accuracy would not do well for his clients.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Origins of the Second World War ([1961] 1962), Ch. 7, p. 134
“It [the Munich Agreement] was a triumph for all that was best and most enlightened in British life; a triumph for those who had preached equal justice between peoples; a triumph for those who had courageously denounced the harshness and short-sightedness of Versailles. Brailsford, the leading Socialist authority on foreign affairs, wrote in 1920 of the peace settlement: "The worst offence was the subjection of over three million Germans to Czech rule." This was the offence redressed at Munich.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source