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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.

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
London
Shapes
Constant
Exercise
Tropical
Break
Slums
Care
Jungle
Like
Bush
Shape

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I always try to suit my clothes to my company. It is the only way to be inconspicuous.
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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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[W]ithout humour you cannot run a sweetie-shop, let alone a nation.
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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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You see only the productions of second-rate folk who are in a hurry to get wealth and fame. The true knowledge, the deadly knowledge, is still kept secret. But, believe me, my friend, it is there.
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Leadership is only courage and wisdom, and a great carefulness of self.
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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.
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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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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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Wise men never grow up indeed, they grow younger, for they lose the appalling worldly wisdom of youth.
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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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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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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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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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What would you call the highest happiness, Lewie? he asked. The sense of competence, was the answer, given without hesitation.
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We can pay our debts to the past by putting the future in debt to ourselves.
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The book trade is a spiritual barometer of a nations well-being.
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There may be peace without joy, and joy without peace, but the two combined make happiness.
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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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It struck me that Albania was the sort of place that might keep a man from yawning.
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