A. J. P. Taylor Quotes

Alan John Percivale Taylor (A. J. P. Taylor) was an English historian. His specialty was in 19th- and 20th-century European diplomacy. The combination of academic discipline and public appeal made him a lovable figure among other historians. Here are some of A. J. P. Taylor popular quotes you can enjoy and think about.

• • A racing tipster who only reached Hitler’s level of accuracy would not do well for his clients.

• • If there had been no troublemakers, no Dissenters, we should still be living in caves.

• • The great armies, accumulated to provide security and preserve the peace, carried the nations to war by their own weight.

• • There is nothing more agreeable in life than to make peace with the Establishment – and nothing more corrupting.

• • History is the great propagator of doubt.

• • The greatest problem about old age is the fear that it may go on too long.

• • Freedom does not always win. This is one of the bitterest lessons of history.

• • Human blunders usually do more to shape history than human wickedness.

• • No war is inevitable until it breaks out.

• • Perfect soldier, perfect gentleman never gave offence to anyone not even the enemy.

• • We learn nothing from history except the infinite variety of men’s behaviour.

• • Knowledge breeds doubt, not certainty, and the more we know the more uncertain we become.

• • Nothing is inevitable until it happens.

• • 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.

• • Psychoanalysts believe that the only ‘normal’ people are those who cause no trouble either to themselves or anyone else.

• • In my opinion, most of the great men of the past were only there for the beer – the wealth, prestige and grandeur that went with the power.

• • 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.

• • No matter what political reasons are given for war, the underlying reason is always economic.

• • Fascism was little more than terrorist rule by corrupt gangsters. Mussolini was not corrupt himself but he did nothing except to rage impotently.

• • Like most of those who study history, he (Napoleon III) learned from the mistakes of the past how to make new ones.

• • The crusade against Communism was even more imaginary than the specter of Communism.

• • Lenin was the first to discover that capitalism ‘inevitably’ caused war; and he discovered this only when the First World War was already being fought. Of course he was right. Since every great state was capitalist in 1914.

• • A master of improvised speech and improvised policies.

Taped quotes from A. J. P. Taylor on French politics

A bit about A. J. P. Taylor

Name: Alan John Percivale Taylor
Born: 25 March 1906
Died: 7 September 1990
Occupation: Historian
Awards: Fellow of the British Academy

A. J. P. Taylor married three times and had 6 children. What made sky a great historian among others was his discipline and that he used irony and humor two entertain and inform. He was a man of the people, his lectures on television was known by millions. His books, discoveries and opinions would sometimes create debates across the country.

Funny fact about A. J. P. Taylor
He was a user of marijuana!

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