A phenomenon noticeable throughout history regardless of place or period is the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests.
Barbara TuchmanThe appetite for power is old and irrepressible in humankind, and in its action almost always destructive.
Barbara TuchmanIn America, where the electoral process is drowning in commercial techniques of fund-raising and image-making, we may have completed a circle back to a selection process as unconcerned with qualifications as that which made Darius King of Persia. ... he whose horse was the first to neigh at sunrise should be King.
Barbara Tuchman