Create Yours

Top 15 Margaret MacMillan Quotes (2025 Update)

Margaret MacMillan Quote: “In the fluid world of 1919, it was possible to dream of great change, or have nightmares about the collapse of order.”

1. “In the fluid world of 1919, it was possible to dream of great change, or have nightmares about the collapse of order.”

— Margaret MacMillan

Margaret MacMillan Quote: “We can learn from history, but we can also deceive ourselves when we selectively take evidence from the past to justify what we have already made up our minds to do.”

2. “We can learn from history, but we can also deceive ourselves when we selectively take evidence from the past to justify what we have already made up our minds to do.”

— Margaret MacMillan

Margaret MacMillan Quote: “Perhaps it was no accident that it was a Viennese, Sigmund Freud, who was to come up with the notion of the narcissism of small differences. As he wrote in Civilization and Its Discontents, ’it is precisely communities with adjoining territories, and related to each other in other ways as well, who are engaged in constant feuds and in ridiculing each other.”

3. “Perhaps it was no accident that it was a Viennese, Sigmund Freud, who was to come up with the notion of the narcissism of small differences. As he wrote in Civilization and Its Discontents, ’it is precisely communities with adjoining territories, and related to each other in other ways as well, who are engaged in constant feuds and in ridiculing each other.”

— Margaret MacMillan

Margaret MacMillan Quote: “History should not be written to make the present generation feel good but to remind us that human affairs are complicated.”

4. “History should not be written to make the present generation feel good but to remind us that human affairs are complicated.”

— Margaret MacMillan

Margaret MacMillan Quote: “Wilson agreed reluctantly to their attempts: “I don’t much like to make a compromise with people who aren’t reasonable. They will always believe that, by persisting in their claims, they will be able to obtain more.”

5. “Wilson agreed reluctantly to their attempts: “I don’t much like to make a compromise with people who aren’t reasonable. They will always believe that, by persisting in their claims, they will be able to obtain more.”

— Margaret MacMillan

Margaret MacMillan Quote: “Louvain was a dull place, said a guidebook in 1910, but when the time came it made a spectacular fire.”

6. “Louvain was a dull place, said a guidebook in 1910, but when the time came it made a spectacular fire.”

— Margaret MacMillan

Margaret MacMillan Quote: “As the American historian John Lewis Gaddis put it, it is like looking in a rearview mirror: if you only look back, you will land in the ditch, but it helps to know where you have come from and who else is on the road.”

7. “As the American historian John Lewis Gaddis put it, it is like looking in a rearview mirror: if you only look back, you will land in the ditch, but it helps to know where you have come from and who else is on the road.”

— Margaret MacMillan

Margaret MacMillan Quote: “His older compatriot Friedrich Nietzsche had entertained no such hopes: “For long now our entire European culture has been moving with a tormenting tension that grows greater from decade to decade, as if towards a catastrophe: restless, violent, precipitate, like a river that wants to reach its end.”23.”

8. “His older compatriot Friedrich Nietzsche had entertained no such hopes: “For long now our entire European culture has been moving with a tormenting tension that grows greater from decade to decade, as if towards a catastrophe: restless, violent, precipitate, like a river that wants to reach its end.”23.”

— Margaret MacMillan

Margaret MacMillan Quote: “The delegates to the peace conference after World War I “tried to impose a rational order on an irrational world.”

9. “The delegates to the peace conference after World War I “tried to impose a rational order on an irrational world.”

— Margaret MacMillan

Margaret MacMillan Quote: “The French would do whatever it took to get Britain to commit itself. In 1909 they produced a carefully faked document, said to have been discovered when a French commercial traveler picked up the wrong bag on a train, which purported to show Germany’s invasion plans for Britain.”

10. “The French would do whatever it took to get Britain to commit itself. In 1909 they produced a carefully faked document, said to have been discovered when a French commercial traveler picked up the wrong bag on a train, which purported to show Germany’s invasion plans for Britain.”

— Margaret MacMillan

Margaret MacMillan Quote: “He told conductors how to conduct and painters how to paint. As Edward said unkindly, he was “the most brilliant failure in history.”33.”

11. “He told conductors how to conduct and painters how to paint. As Edward said unkindly, he was “the most brilliant failure in history.”33.”

— Margaret MacMillan

Margaret MacMillan Quote: “What may seem like a reasonable way of protecting oneself can look very different from the other side of the border.”

12. “What may seem like a reasonable way of protecting oneself can look very different from the other side of the border.”

— Margaret MacMillan

Margaret MacMillan Quote: “The glories of the past compensated for the imperfections of the present.”

13. “The glories of the past compensated for the imperfections of the present.”

— Margaret MacMillan

Margaret MacMillan Quote: “The failure of the talks between Chamberlain and the German ambassador in London, the public and private outbursts of the Kaiser, the well-reported anti-British and pro-Boer sentiment among the German public, even the silly controversy over whether Chamberlain had insulted the Prussian army, all left their residue of mistrust and resentments in Britain as well as in Germany.”

14. “The failure of the talks between Chamberlain and the German ambassador in London, the public and private outbursts of the Kaiser, the well-reported anti-British and pro-Boer sentiment among the German public, even the silly controversy over whether Chamberlain had insulted the Prussian army, all left their residue of mistrust and resentments in Britain as well as in Germany.”

— Margaret MacMillan

Margaret MacMillan Quote: “Even the gentle composer Richard Strauss was carried away by anti-French feeling. He told Kessler in the summer of 1912 that he would go along when war broke out. What did he think he could do, his wife asked. Perhaps, Strauss said uncertainly, he could be a nurse. “Oh, you, Richard!” snapped his wife. “You can’t stand the sight of blood!” Strauss looked embarrassed but insisted: “I would do my best. But if the French get a thrashing, I want to be there.”24.”

15. “Even the gentle composer Richard Strauss was carried away by anti-French feeling. He told Kessler in the summer of 1912 that he would go along when war broke out. What did he think he could do, his wife asked. Perhaps, Strauss said uncertainly, he could be a nurse. “Oh, you, Richard!” snapped his wife. “You can’t stand the sight of blood!” Strauss looked embarrassed but insisted: “I would do my best. But if the French get a thrashing, I want to be there.”24.”

— Margaret MacMillan

Margaret MacMillan Quote: “Passionate and forcefully argued, Tar Sands is a wake-up call not just to Canadians but to the wider world to take a serious look at what is happening in northern Alberta. To call this book a polemic is a compliment.”

16. “Passionate and forcefully argued, Tar Sands is a wake-up call not just to Canadians but to the wider world to take a serious look at what is happening in northern Alberta. To call this book a polemic is a compliment.”

— Margaret MacMillan

Margaret MacMillan Quote: “They should have remembered that famous saying of Bismarck: “Preventive war is like committing suicide out of fear of death.”

17. “They should have remembered that famous saying of Bismarck: “Preventive war is like committing suicide out of fear of death.”

— Margaret MacMillan

Margaret MacMillan Quote: “Anyone who falls into your hands falls to your sword!”

18. “Anyone who falls into your hands falls to your sword!”

— Margaret MacMillan

Margaret MacMillan Quote: “British would use every means from persuasion to bribery in Morocco and when those failed the wives of British diplomats knew what they had to do to further Britain’s interests.”

19. “British would use every means from persuasion to bribery in Morocco and when those failed the wives of British diplomats knew what they had to do to further Britain’s interests.”

— Margaret MacMillan

Motivational Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Positive Quotes

Positive Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Motivational Quotes

INSPIRATIONAL SUCCESS MOTIVATIONAL

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS INSPIRATIONAL

Positive Quotes

Positive Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS INSPIRATIONAL

Steve Jobs Quotes

Steve Jobs Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS APPLE

Inspirational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

COURAGE MOTIVATIONAL STRENGTH

INSPIRATIONAL SUCCESS MOTIVATIONAL

Swami Vivekananda Quotes

Swami Vivekananda Quotes

LIFE SPIRITUALITY

Save image...
Permalink
Open in new tab
Copy quote text

Beautiful Wallpapers and Images

We hope you enjoyed our collection of 15 Margaret MacMillan Quotes.

All the images on this page were created with QuoteFancy Studio.

Use QuoteFancy Studio to create high-quality images for your desktop backgrounds, blog posts, presentations, social media, videos, posters, and more.

Thank you!

Please check your email.