A. J. P. Taylor Quotes

The First World War had begun — imposed on the statesmen of Europe by railway timetables. It was an unexpected climax to the railway age.

The failure of the "good Germans," not the ranting of the "bad" ones, was the real crime of Germany against European civilization.

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 Normans were savage destroyers who brought ruin to a flourishing culture and stamped their brutality on the land and on its architecture. The old Radicals were not all that wrong when they attributed the evils of our society to the Norman conquest and looked back to Anglo-Saxon times as a golden age.

He detested titles. This, no doubt, is why he distributed them so lavishly.

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.

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.

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?

The peace of the world depends on American strength and, still more, on American restraint.

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

Economic planning from above can be carried out in peacetime only by the aid of fines, prisons, and ultimately concentration camps.

Our basic conviction is that the world owes us a living... We need new and ruthless leadership. We need an economic order where the creative leaders receive greater rewards and the administrators receive less.

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.

I am against inequality of the sexes, as much as I am against class privilege or colour prejudice.

There are some moral principles more important to me than economics. I am against racial discrimination. I am against privilege. I am for the sovereign independence of this country and for the unity of the Commonwealth. Labour does not help me on any of these.