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

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There may be peace without joy, and joy without peace, but the two combined make happiness.
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But some love not the method of your first Romance they count it, throw't away as dust If I should meet with such, what should I say Must I slight them as they slight me, or nay
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Every man at the bottom of his heart believes that he is a born detective.
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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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The book trade is a spiritual barometer of a nations well-being.
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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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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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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.
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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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[W]ithout humour you cannot run a sweetie-shop, let alone a nation.
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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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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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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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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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Without humility there can be no humanity.
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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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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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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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It struck me that Albania was the sort of place that might keep a man from yawning.
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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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