Human beings of any age need to approve of themselves; the bad times in history come when they cannot.
Barbara TuchmanIn the United States we have a society pervaded from top to bottom by contempt for the law.
Barbara TuchmanTo rush in upon an event before its significance has had time to separate from the surrounding circumstances may be enterprising, but is it useful? ... The recent prevalence of these hot histories on publishers' lists raises the question: Should - or perhaps can - history be written while it is still smoking?
Barbara TuchmanIn a country where misery and want were the foundation of the social structure, famine was periodic, death from starvation common, disease pervasive, thievery normal, and graft and corruption taken for granted, the elimination of these conditions in Communist China is so striking that negative aspects of the new rule fade in relative importance.
Barbara Tuchman