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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.

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
Modern
Inaugurated
Seen
Infallibility
Heaven
Rationalism
Makes
Bourgeois
Earth
Inadequate
Reason
Reign
Things
Finds
World
Dull

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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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An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support.
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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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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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That is the supreme value of history. The study of it is the best guarantee against repeating it.
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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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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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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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Without humility there can be no humanity.
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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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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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There may be peace without joy, and joy without peace, but the two combined make happiness.
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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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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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[W]ithout humour you cannot run a sweetie-shop, let alone a nation.
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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 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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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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Civilization is a conspiracy. Modern life is the silent compact of comfortable folk to keep up pretences.
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