“Human beings of any age need to approve of themselves; the bad times in history come when they cannot.”

— Barbara W. Tuchman

Source: A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Human beings of any age need to approve of themselves; the bad times in history come when they cannot." by Barbara W. Tuchman?

Barbara W. Tuchman 45

American historian and author 1912–1989

Related quotes

“There will come a time when humanity will look back on this time as the 'barbarian age.'”

Benjamin Creme (1922–2016) artist, author, esotericist

So far from the possible ideal is the present dying civilization that future men will wonder how, and for so long, were we able to sustain it.
Source: A Master Speaks (1985)
The end of the 'barbarian age https://share-international.org/archives/Master_--/Mas-end-barbarian.html (April 1999)

“The time had come for one of those Divine manifestations which from age to age are made for the helping of humanity, when a new impulse is needed to quicken the spiritual evolution of mankind, when a new civilisation is about to dawn.”

Annie Besant (1847–1933) British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator

Source: Esoteric Christianity: Or, The Lesser Mysteries (1914), Chapter IV. The Historical Christ

“Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without embellishing.”

Akira Kurosawa (1910–1998) Japanese film maker

Criterion Collection essay on Rashamon, excerpted from Something Like an Autobiography as translated by Audie E. Bock (1982) http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/196-akira-kurosawa-on-rashomon
Context: Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without embellishing. This script portrays such human beings — the kind who cannot survive without lies to make them feel they are better people than they really are. It even shows this sinful need for flattering falsehood going beyond the grave — even the character who dies cannot give up his lies when he speaks to the living through a medium. Egoism is a sin the human being carries with him from birth; it is the most difficult to redeem. This film is like a strange picture scroll that is unrolled and displayed by the ego. You say that you can’t understand this script at all, but that is because the human heart itself is impossible to understand. If you focus on the impossibility of truly understanding human psychology and read the script one more time, I think you will grasp the point of it.

“The needs of a human being are sacred. Their satisfaction cannot be subordinated either to reasons of state, or to any consideration of money, nationality, race, or colour, or to the moral or other value attributed to the human being in question, or to any consideration whatsoever.”

Simone Weil (1909–1943) French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist

Draft for a Statement of Human Obligation (1943), Statement Of Obligations
Context: The needs of a human being are sacred. Their satisfaction cannot be subordinated either to reasons of state, or to any consideration of money, nationality, race, or colour, or to the moral or other value attributed to the human being in question, or to any consideration whatsoever.
There is no legitimate limit to the satisfaction of the needs of a human being except as imposed by necessity and by the needs of other human beings. The limit is only legitimate if the needs of all human beings receive an equal degree of attention.

“A truly strong person does not need the approval of others any more than a lion needs the approval of sheep.”

Vernon Howard (1918–1992) American writer

“In any age courage is the simple virtue needed for a human being to traverse the rocky road from infancy to maturity of personality. But in an age of anxiety, an age of her morality and personal isolation, courage is a sine qua non.”

Rollo May (1909–1994) US psychiatrist

Source: Man’s Search for Himself (1953), p. 191
Context: In any age courage is the simple virtue needed for a human being to traverse the rocky road from infancy to maturity of personality. But in an age of anxiety, an age of her morality and personal isolation, courage is a sine qua non. In periods when the mores of the society were more consistent guides, the individual was more firmly cushioned in his crises of development; but in times of transition like ours, the individual is thrown on his own at an earlier age and for a longer period.