John Buchan Quotes
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History gives us a kind of chart, and we dare not surrender even a small rushlight in the darkness. The hasty reformer who does not remember the past will find himself condemned to repeat it.
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You think that a wall as solid as the earth separates civilization from barbarism. I tell you the division is a thread, a sheet of glass. A touch here, a push there, and you bring back the reign of Saturn.
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I once played the chief part in a rather exciting business without ever once budging from London . And the joke of it was that the man who went out to look for adventure only saw a bit of the game, and I who sat in my chambers saw it all and pulled the strings. 'They also serve who only stand and wait,' you know.
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Every man at the bottom of his heart believes that he is a born detective.
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An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support.
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Most true points are fine points. There never was a dispute between mortals where both sides hadn't a bit of right.
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The world was arrogant and self-satisfied, but behind all this confidence there was an uneasy sense of impending disaster. The old creeds, both religious and political, were largely in the process of dissolution, but we did not realise the fact, and therefore did not look for new foundations.
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Civilisation is a conspiracy.
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We can pay our debts to the past by putting the future in debt to ourselves.
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But some love not the method of your first; Romance they count it, throw't away as dust; If I should meet with such, what should I say; Must I slight them as they slight me, or nay
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I was a peaceful sedentary man, a lover of a quiet life, with no appetite for perils and commotions. But I was beginning to realise that I was very obstinate.
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Our sufferings have taught us that no nation is sufficient unto itself, and that our prosperity depends in the long run, not upon the failures of our neighbors but their successes.
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If those extra-social brains are so potent, why after all do they effect so little? A dull police-officer, with the machine behind him, can afford to laugh at most experiments in anarchy.
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Any large-scale organization must lose some of the merits of its rudimentary beginnings. Quantity will have a coarsening effect on quality.
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Pessimism is the one ism which kills the soul.
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The Church of Christ is an anvil which has worn out many hammers. Our opponents may boast of their strength, but they do not realize what they have challenged.
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The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope.
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He who would valiant be against all disaster; let him in constancy follow the Master. There's no discouragement shall make him once relent; his first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.
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Young girls passed me with romance still in their eyes, and others, a little older, with the romance dead.
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"What would you call the highest happiness, Lewie?" he asked. "The sense of competence," was the answer, given without hesitation.
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I believe that all wisdom consists in caring immensely for a few right things, and not caring a straw about the rest.
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He disliked emotion, not because he felt lightly, but because he felt deeply.
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Fortunately for mankind the brain in a life of action turns more to the matter in hand than to conjuring up the chances of the future.
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Civilisation needs more than the law to hold it together. You see, all mankind are not equally willing to accept as divine justice what is called human law.
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London is like the tropical bush -- if you don't exercise constant care the jungle, in the shape of the slums, will break in.
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The vows we take in the holy place bind us till we are purged of them at Inanda's Kraal. Till then no blood must be shed and no flesh eaten. It was the fashion of our forefathers.
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There may be peace without joy, and joy without peace, but the two combined make happiness.
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[W]ithout humour you cannot run a sweetie-shop, let alone a nation.
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The book trade is a spiritual barometer of a nations well-being.
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It's a great life, if you don't weaken.
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John Buchan
- Born: August 26, 1875
- Died: February 11, 1940
- Occupation: Former Governor General of Canada