Quote

I am an ordinary sort of fellow, not braver than other people, but I hate to see a good man downed, and that long knife would not be the end of Scudder if I could play the game in his place.

John Buchan

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

John Buchan
Age: 64 †
Born: 1875
Born: August 26
Died: 1940
Died: February 11
Barrister
Biographer
Former Governor General Of Canada
Journalist
Military Personnel
Novelist
Poet
Politician
Science Fiction Writer
Perth
Scotland
John Buchan
1st Baron Tweedsmuir
Lord Tweedsmuir
Ends
Fellow
Play
Fellows
Long
Ordinary
Good
Game
Would
Sort
Downed
Men
Games
Braver
People
Hate
Knife
Place
Knives

More quotes by John Buchan

Image
That is the supreme value of history. The study of it is the best guarantee against repeating it.
John Buchan
Image
The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope.
John Buchan
Image
What would you call the highest happiness, Lewie? he asked. The sense of competence, was the answer, given without hesitation.
John Buchan
Image
Wise men never grow up indeed, they grow younger, for they lose the appalling worldly wisdom of youth.
John Buchan
Image
Most true points are fine points. There never was a dispute between mortals where both sides hadn't a bit of right.
John Buchan
Image
Without humility there can be no humanity.
John Buchan
Image
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.
John Buchan
Image
Leadership is only courage and wisdom, and a great carefulness of self.
John Buchan
Image
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
John Buchan
Image
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.
John Buchan
Image
The book trade is a spiritual barometer of a nations well-being.
John Buchan
Image
I believe that all wisdom consists in caring immensely for a few right things, and not caring a straw about the rest.
John Buchan
Image
It struck me that Albania was the sort of place that might keep a man from yawning.
John Buchan
Image
It was foreordained that I should go alone to Umvelos', and in the promptings of my own infallible heart I believed I saw the workings of Omnipotence. Such is our moral arrogance, and yet without such a belief I think that mankind would have ever been content to bide sluggishly at home.
John Buchan
Image
Any large-scale organization must lose some of the merits of its rudimentary beginnings. Quantity will have a coarsening effect on quality.
John Buchan
Image
Every man at the bottom of his heart believes that he is a born detective.
John Buchan
Image
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.
John Buchan
Image
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.
John Buchan
Image
[W]ithout humour you cannot run a sweetie-shop, let alone a nation.
John Buchan
Image
London is like the tropical bush -- if you don't exercise constant care the jungle, in the shape of the slums, will break in.
John Buchan