Adam Hochschild Quotes

#1. I think the tradition of well-written history hasn't been squashed out of the academic world as much in Britain as it has in the United States.

Adam Hochschild

#2. The millions of words that would flow from his pen over the remainder of his life came in a handwriting that raced across the page in bold, forward-slanting lines, flattened by speed, as if they had no time to spare in reaching their destination.

Adam Hochschild

#3. Of the many million pairs of grieving parents, we will never know how many felt that their sons had died for something noble, and how many felt what one British couple expressed in the epitaph they placed on their son's tombstone at Gallipoli: 'What harm did he do Thee, O Lord?

Adam Hochschild

#4. His health grew worse, probably exacerbated by the myriad of hovering doctors eager to give their famous patient all the latest treatments: strychnine injections, ammonia, ether, and electric pulses. On

Adam Hochschild

#5. it is easy to see how Stanley's painful poorhouse childhood may have fostered his cruel streak and the drive to place his mark on the world. The origin of the fiery passion for justice that fueled Morel is less evident. He

Adam Hochschild

#6. Without helmets and uniforms, it is impossible to tell their nationality; their naked bodies mark them only as human beings.

Adam Hochschild

#7. We'd rip out the hedges and burn the hooches and blow all the wells and kill every chicken, pig and cow in the whole fucking ville. I mean, if we can't shoot these people, what the fuck are we doing here?

Adam Hochschild

#8. Newt Gingrich seldom misses a chance to note that he is a historian.

Adam Hochschild

#9. Casement quoted an African proverb: "A man doesn't go among thorns unless a snake's after him - or he's after a snake." He added, "I'm after a snake and please God I'll scotch it.

Adam Hochschild

#10. No international court can ever substitute for a working national justice system. Or for a society at peace.

Adam Hochschild

#11. For the better part of two centuries, outsiders have been offering explanations that range from racist to learned-sounding - the supposed inferiority of blacks, the heritage of slavery, overpopulation - for why Haiti remains the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Adam Hochschild

#12. I think that, in almost all human beings, there is buried a profound tribal instinct that makes us very susceptible to being aroused to patriotic fervour.

Adam Hochschild

#13. Work is hard. Distractions are plentiful. And time is short.

Adam Hochschild

#14. The first World War in so many ways shaped the 20th century and really remade our world for the worse.

Adam Hochschild

#15. As the First World War made painfully clear, when politicians and generals lead nations into war, they almost invariably assume swift victory, and have a remarkably enduring tendency not to foresee problems that, in hindsight, seem obvious.

Adam Hochschild

#16. That Newton shuddered now [at slavery] is a testimony to they way a strong social movement can awaken a conscience..

Adam Hochschild

#17. Wretched set of incompetent noodles.

Adam Hochschild

#18. Unlike, say, witch-burning, slavery, and apartheid, which were once taken for granted and are now officially outlawed, war is still with us.

Adam Hochschild

#19. Those who are conquered," wrote the philosopher Ibn Khaldun in the fourteenth century, "always want to imitate the conqueror in his main characteristics - in his clothing, his crafts, and in all his distinctive traits and customs.

Adam Hochschild