Kitty

“The cracking of old and famous structures is slow and internal, while the facade holds.”
― Barbara W. Tuchman, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

“In writing I am seduced by the sound of words and by the interaction of their sound and sense.”
― Barbara W. Tuchman, Practicing History: Selected Essays

“Any person who considers himself, and intends to remain, a member of Western society inherits the Western past from Athens and Jerusalem to Runnymede and Valley Forge, as well as to Watts and Chicago of August 1968. He may ignore it or deny it, but that does not alter the fact. The past sits back and smiles and knows it owns him anyway.”
― Barbara W. Tuchman, Practicing History: Selected Essays

“Nineteenth-century liberalism had assumed that man was a rational being who operated naturally according to his own best interests, so that in the end, what was reasonable would prevail. On this principle liberals defended extension of the suffrage toward the goal of one man, one vote. But a rise in literacy and in the right to vote, as the event proved, did nothing to increase common sense in politics. The mob that is moved by waving the bloody shirt, that decides elections in response to slogans—Free Silver, Hang the Kaiser, Two Cars in Every Garage—is not exhibiting any greater political sense than Marie Antoinette, who said, “Let them eat cake,” or Caligula, who made his horse a consul. The common man proved no wiser than the decadent aristocrat. He has not shown in public affairs the innate wisdom which democracy presumed he possessed.”
― Barbara W. Tuchman, Practicing History: Selected Essays