WIST

The most dangerous error is failure to recognize our own tendency to error.

B. H. Liddell Hart (1895-1970) English soldier, militaary history (Basil Henry Liddell Hart)
“Blindfolded Authority,” Why Don’t We Learn from History? (1944)

Various fresh ideas gained acceptance … when they could be presented not as something radically new, but as the revival in modern terms of a time-honored principle or practice that had been forgotten.

B. H. Liddell Hart (1895-1970) English soldier, militaary history (Basil Henry Liddell Hart)
Strategy, Preface (1954)

Be very careful never to show your own bias to anyone who is giving you information, or passing it on to you. Once he sees that you have a particular inclination he will instinctively tend to tell you what he thinks will suit you, and enhance your opinion of him.

B. H. Liddell Hart (1895-1970) English soldier, militaary history (Basil Henry Liddell Hart)
This Expanding War, “Intelligence Problems” (1942)

There are over two thousand years of experience to tell us that the only thing harder than getting a new idea into the military mind is to get an old one out.

B. H. Liddell Hart (1895-1970) English soldier, militaary history (Basil Henry Liddell Hart)
Thoughts on War, 5.6 “March 1936″ (1944)

The search for truth for truth’s sake is the mark of the historian.

B. H. Liddell Hart (1895-1970) English soldier, militaary history (Basil Henry Liddell Hart)
Why Don’t We Learn from History?, “Blinding Loyalties” (1944)

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 (1895-1970) English soldier, militaary history (Basil Henry Liddell Hart)
Why Don’t We Learn from History?, “Blinding Loyalties” (1944)

A sound rule of historical evidences is that while assertions should be treated with critical doubt, admissions are likely to be reliable.

B. H. Liddell Hart (1895-1970) English soldier, militaary history (Basil Henry Liddell Hart)
Why Don’t We Learn from History?, “The Exploration of History” (1944)

History marches on the stomachs of statesmen.

B. H. Liddell Hart (1895-1970) English soldier, militaary history (Basil Henry Liddell Hart)
Why Don’t We Learn from History?, “The Exploration of History” (1944)

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.

B. H. Liddell Hart (1895-1970) English soldier, militaary history (Basil Henry Liddell Hart)
Why Don’t We Learn from History?, “The Germs of War” (1944)