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

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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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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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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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There may be peace without joy, and joy without peace, but the two combined make happiness.
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[W]ithout humour you cannot run a sweetie-shop, let alone a nation.
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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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He who would valiant be against all disaster let him in constancy follow the Master. There's no discouragement shall make him once relent his first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.
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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 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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It struck me that Albania was the sort of place that might keep a man from yawning.
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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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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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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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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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The book trade is a spiritual barometer of a nations well-being.
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Without humility there can be no humanity.
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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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Wise men never grow up indeed, they grow younger, for they lose the appalling worldly wisdom of youth.
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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.
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