Quote #12
The present enables us to understand the past, not the other way round.
More from 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 poet…
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- 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 n…
- American statesmen might like some Europeans more than others and even detect quaint resemblances to their own outlook; but they no more co…
- 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 regrettin…
- 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 questi…
- The greatest problem about old age is the fear that it may go on too long.
- Taylor's Law states: 'The Foreign Office knows no secrets.'