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

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Without humility there can be no humanity.
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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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That is the supreme value of history. The study of it is the best guarantee against repeating it.
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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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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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There may be peace without joy, and joy without peace, but the two combined make happiness.
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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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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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It struck me that Albania was the sort of place that might keep a man from yawning.
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[W]ithout humour you cannot run a sweetie-shop, let alone a nation.
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Every man at the bottom of his heart believes that he is a born detective.
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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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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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In our modern world we have seen inaugurated the reign of a dull bourgeois rationalism, which finds some inadequate reason for all things in heaven and earth and makes a god of its own infallibility.
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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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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 task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already.
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An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support.
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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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