276 Quotes by Barbara W. Tuchman

House Speaker Thomas Reed could destroy an argument or expose a fallacy in fewer words than anyone else. His language was vivid and picturesque. He had a way of phrasing things which was peculiarly apt and peculiarly his own.

Talent for oratory can simulate the need for action and even thought.

An event of great agony is bearable only in the belief that it will bring about a better world. When it does not, as in the aftermath of another vast calamity in 1914-18, disillusion is deep and moves on to self-doubt and self-disgust.

Confronted by menace or what is perceived as menace, governments will usually attempt to smash it, rarely to examine it, understand it, and drefine it.

Advice to young Samuel Gompers that might apply in many other areas: "Learn from socialism, but don't join it.

In a dependent relationship, the protégé can always control the protector by threatening to collapse.

William McKinley was a man made to be managed.

Prison does not silence ideas whose time has come.

No single characteristic ever overtakes an entire society.