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

More quotes by 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.
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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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That is the supreme value of history. The study of it is the best guarantee against repeating it.
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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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He disliked emotion, not because he felt lightly, but because he felt deeply.
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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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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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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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Every man at the bottom of his heart believes that he is a born detective.
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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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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 book trade is a spiritual barometer of a nations well-being.
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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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There may be peace without joy, and joy without peace, but the two combined make happiness.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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