Quote

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

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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
Tell
Division
Saturn
Earth
Glass
Barbarism
Back
Push
Sheet
Think
Glasses
Separates
Thinking
Touch
Sheets
Life
Civilization
Reign
Wall
Thread
Bring
Solid

More quotes by John Buchan

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Wise men never grow up indeed, they grow younger, for they lose the appalling worldly wisdom of youth.
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Civilization is a conspiracy. Modern life is the silent compact of comfortable folk to keep up pretences.
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We can pay our debts to the past by putting the future in debt to ourselves.
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He disliked emotion, not because he felt lightly, but because he felt deeply.
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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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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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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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The book trade is a spiritual barometer of a nations well-being.
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It struck me that Albania was the sort of place that might keep a man from yawning.
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I would have been content with any job however thankless, in any quarter however remote, if I had a chance of making a corner of the desert blossom and the solitary place glad.
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There may be peace without joy, and joy without peace, but the two combined make happiness.
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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.
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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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That is the supreme value of history. The study of it is the best guarantee against repeating it.
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An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support.
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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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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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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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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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