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

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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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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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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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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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It struck me that Albania was the sort of place that might keep a man from yawning.
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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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Without humility there can be no humanity.
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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 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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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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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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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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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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Wise men never grow up indeed, they grow younger, for they lose the appalling worldly wisdom of youth.
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[W]ithout humour you cannot run a sweetie-shop, let alone a nation.
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