Why Don't We Learn from History? Quotes

“Loyalty is a noble quality, so long as it is not blind and does not exclude the higher loyalty to truth and decency.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“If you wish for peace, understand war.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“Truth is a spiral staircase. What looks true on one level may not be true on the next higher level. A complete vision must extend vertically as well as horizontally; not only seeing the parts in relation to one another but embracing the different planes.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“Man seems to come into the this world with an inalterable belief that he knows best and that he can make others think as he does by force. (How else do we explain why leading men in government madly propose the use of nuclear weapons against the people of another nation because of a trade dispute?) Nations delight in having a militaristic leader represent them and thrive on enforcing their will on lesser powers with a view to the glory and plunder that will follow victory. Peoples are never so united as in the early days of war nor so determined to overcome once they see that a greater effort and more sacrifices will be demanded of them before success is won. All very noble and all fantasy. Has any war in the history of the world followed such a pattern? None on the Ship of Fools ever asks.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“The vital influences are to be detected not in the formal documents compiled by rulers, ministers, and generals but in their marginal notes and verbal asides. Here are revealed their instinctive prejudices, lack of interest in truth for its own sake, and indifference to the exactness of statement and reception which is a safeguard against dangerous misunderstanding. I”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“We must face the fact that international relations are governed by interests and not by moral principles.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“Civilization is built on the practice of keeping promises. It may not sound a high attainment, but if trust in its observance be shaken the whole structure cracks and sinks. Any constructive effort and all human relations—personal, political, and commercial—depend on being able to depend on promises.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“It is also to the credit of the totalitarian systems that they have stimulated service to the community and the sense of comradeship—up to a point. In this respect their effect on a nation is like that of war. And, as in war, the quick-ripening good fellowship of the powerless many is apt to obscure the intrigues of the powerful few, the withering of the roots in such a soil, and the gradual decay of the tree. Bad means lead to no good end.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“War is only profitable if victory is quickly gained. Only an aggressor can hope to gain a quick victory.
…
Since an aggressor goes to war for gain, he is apt to be the more ready of the two sides to seek peace by agreement. The aggressed side is usually more inclined to seek vengeance through the pursuit of victory; even though all experience has shown that victory is a mirage in the desert created by a long war. This desire for vengeance is natural but far reaching and self-injurious. And even if it be fulfilled, it merely sets up a fresh cycle of revenge-seeking.
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The side that has suffered aggression would be unwise to bid for peace lest its bid be taken as a sign of weakness or fear. But it would be wise to listen to any bid that the enemy makes. Even if the initial proposals are not good enough, once an opposing Government has started bidding it is easily led to improve its offers.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“Unless the great majority of a people are willing to give their services there is something radically at fault in the state itself.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“the thinking man must be against authoritarianism in any form, because it shows its fear of thoughts which do not suit momentary authority.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“the quick-ripening good fellowship of the powerless many is apt to obscure the intrigues of the powerful few,”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“Our civilization, like the Greek, has, for all its blundering way, taught the value of freedom, of criticism of authority, and of harmonising this with order. Anyone who urges a different system, for efficiency's sake, is betraying the vital tradition.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“We learn from history that those who are disloyal to their own superiors are most prone to preach loyalty to their subordinates.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“The other main cause in diminishing moral courage, however, was a lack of private means that led commanding officers to wilt before their superiors because of concern with the problem of providing for their children's education.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“Haig was an honourable man according to his lights, but his lights were dim.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“I can conceive of no finer ideal of a man's life than to face life with clear eyes instead of stumbling through it like a blind man, an imbecile, or a drunkard, which, in a thinking sense, is the common preference.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“Soldiers universally concede the general truth of Napoleon's much quoted dictum that in war "the moral is to the physical as three to one.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“Any successful institution, bureaucracy, bank, business, medical, legal protects itself from change to it own eventual destruction.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“I would add that the only hope for humanity, now, is that my particular field of study, warfare, will become purely a subject of antiquarian interest.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“Since he will be following it through a jungle, however, he should bear in mind the supremely practical guidance provided nearly two thousand years ago: "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“He may realize that the world is a jungle. But if he has seen that it could be better for anyone if the simple principles of decency and kindliness were generally applied, then he must in honesty try to practice these consistently and to live, personally, as if they were general. In other words, he must follow the light he has seen.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“It is strange how people assume that no training is needed in the pursuit of truth. It is stranger still that this assumption is often manifest in the very man who talks of the difficulty of determining what is true. We should recognize that for this pursuit anyone requires at least as much care and training as a boxer for a fight or a runner for a marathon. He has to learn how to detach his thinking from every desire and interest, from every sympathy and antipathy; like ridding oneself of superfluous tissue, the "tissue" of untruth which all human beings tend to accumulate for their own comfort and protection. And he must keep fit, to become fitter. In other words, he must be true to the light he has seen.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“Lord Acton's famous dictum "All power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“A model boy rarely goes far, and even when he does he is apt to falter when severely tested. A boy who conforms immaculately to school rules is not likely to grow into a man who will conquer by breaking the stereotyped professional rules of his time, as conquest has most often been achieved. Still less does it imply the development of the wide views necessary in a man who is not merely a troop commander but the strategic adviser of his Government. The wonderful thing about Lee's generalship is not his legendary genius but the way he rose above his handicaps, handicaps that were internal even more than external.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“Opposition to the truth is inevitable, especially if it takes the form of a new idea, but the degree of resistance can be diminished by giving thought not only to the aim but to the method of approach. Avoid a frontal attack on a long-established position; instead, seek to turn it by a flank movement, so that a more penetrable side is exposed to the thrust of truth. But in any such indirect approach, take care not to diverge from the truth, for nothing is more fatal to its real advancement than to lapse into untruth.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“In one of the more penetrating criticisms written on this subject, George Orwell expressed a profound truth in saying that "the energy that actually shapes the world springs from emotions.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“When one gets a close view of influential people, their bad relations with each other, their conflicting ambitions, all the slander and the hatred, one must always bear in mind that it is certainly much worse on the other side, among the French, English, and Russians, or one might well be nervous. . . . The race for power and personal positions seems to destroy all men's characters. I believe that the only creature who can keep his honour is a man living on his own estate; he has no need to intrigue and struggle, for it is no good intriguing for fine weather.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“We learn from history that democracy has commonly put a premium on conventionality. By its nature, it prefers those who keep step with the slowest march of thought and frowns on those who may disturb the "conspiracy for mutual inefficiency." Thereby, this system of government tends to result in the triumph of mediocrity, and entails the exclusion of first-rate ability if this is combined with honesty. But the alternative to it, despotism, almost inevitably means the triumph of stupidity. And of the two evils, the former is the less.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?

“Hence the duty of the good citizen who is free from the responsibility of Government is to be a watchdog upon it, lest Government impair the fundamental objects which it exists to serve. It is a necessary evil, thus requiring constant watchfulness and check.”
― B.H. Liddell Hart, Why Don't We Learn from History?