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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.

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
Future
Conjuring
Action
Fortunately
Hands
Chances
Matter
Mankind
Life
Hand
Brain
Chance
Turns

More quotes by John Buchan

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Civilization is a conspiracy. Modern life is the silent compact of comfortable folk to keep up pretences.
John Buchan
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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.
John Buchan
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[W]ithout humour you cannot run a sweetie-shop, let alone a nation.
John Buchan
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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.
John Buchan
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There may be peace without joy, and joy without peace, but the two combined make happiness.
John Buchan
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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.
John Buchan
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Wise men never grow up indeed, they grow younger, for they lose the appalling worldly wisdom of youth.
John Buchan
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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.
John Buchan
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An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support.
John Buchan
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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.
John Buchan
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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.
John Buchan
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We can pay our debts to the past by putting the future in debt to ourselves.
John Buchan
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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.
John Buchan
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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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The book trade is a spiritual barometer of a nations well-being.
John Buchan
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I always try to suit my clothes to my company. It is the only way to be inconspicuous.
John Buchan
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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.
John Buchan
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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.
John Buchan
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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.
John Buchan
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Leadership is only courage and wisdom, and a great carefulness of self.
John Buchan