The Foreign Office knows no secrets.
A. J. P. Taylor
A. J. P. Taylor
One of the penalties
One of the penalties of being president of the United States is that you must subsist for four years without drinking anything except Californian wine.
A. J. P. Taylor
George VI in the
George VI in the conventional parlance was a Good King who sacrificed his life to his sense of duty. If we are to have monarchs it would be hard to find a better one.
A. J. P. Taylor
Rather an end in
Rather an end in horror, than horror without end. He could not condemn principles he might need to invoke and apply later. The wolf cannot help having been created by God as he is, but we shoot him all the same if we have to. The great player in diplomacy, as in chess, asks the question,Does this improve me?, not look at the possible fringe benefits If you can’t have what you like, you must like what you have.
A. J. P. Taylor
The God of Battles
The God of Battles will throw the dice that decide.
A. J. P. Taylor
There is nothing nicer
There is nothing nicer than nodding off while reading. Going fast asleep and then being woken by the crash of the book on the floor, then saying to yourself, well it doesn’t matter much. An admirable feeling.
A. J. P. Taylor
We learn nothing from
We learn nothing from history except the infinite variety of men’s behaviour.
A. J. P. Taylor
Perfect soldier, perfect gentleman
Perfect soldier, perfect gentleman never gave offence to anyone not even the enemy.
A. J. P. Taylor
History is the great
History is the great propagator of doubt.
A. J. P. Taylor
All other forms of
All other forms of history – economic history, social history, psychological history, above all sociology – seem to me history with the history left out.
A. J. P. Taylor