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A. J. P. Taylor Quotes
1906–1990 England
Alan John Percivale Taylor (25 March 1906 – 7 September 1990) was a British historian, journalist, broadcaster and scholar. His approachably written and sometimes contentiously revisionist studies of 19th and early 20th-century subjects brought academic history to a new audience.
England Activists Historians Journalists Socialists Also known as: AJP Taylor
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48 quotes
A racing tipster who only reached Hitler's level of accuracy would not do well for his clients.
The Origins of the Second World War (1961)
The peace of the world depends on American strength and, still more, on American restraint.
National freedom is as important as economic freedom or the freedom of the individual.
Communists have no principle or belief except the seizure of power by their party.
The greatest problem about old age is the fear that it may go on too long.
The present enables us to understand the past, not the other way round.
The Trouble Makers: Dissent over Foreign Policy, 1792-1939 (1957)
In my experience Communism is intellectual alcohol – nasty and harmful if taken neat, but an essential ingredient of every stimulating drink.
Politically we are not Europeans and never have been.
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.
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.
Rumours of Wars (1952)
Once hitch yourself to the Establishment and you must become the supporter of injustice sooner or later.
Economic planning from above can be carried out in peacetime only by the aid of fines, prisons, and ultimately concentration camps.
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.
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.
The Course of German History (1945)
Like most of those who study history, he learned from the mistakes of the past how to make new ones.
Quakerism has always been in danger of smugness, and is redeemed from it only by an obstinate radicalism.
The failure of the "good Germans," not the ranting of the "bad" ones, was the real crime of Germany against European civilization.
The Course of German History (1945)
Why should knowledge of where I came from tell me where I am going to?
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.
I am against inequality of the sexes, as much as I am against class privilege or colour prejudice.
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