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[W]ithout humour you cannot run a sweetie-shop, let alone a nation.

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
Shops
Nation
Humor
Alone
Nations
Funny
Sweetie
Running
Shop
Cannot
Humour

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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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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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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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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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He disliked emotion, not because he felt lightly, but because he felt deeply.
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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 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 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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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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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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Leadership is only courage and wisdom, and a great carefulness of self.
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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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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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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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It struck me that Albania was the sort of place that might keep a man from yawning.
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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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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 book trade is a spiritual barometer of a nations well-being.
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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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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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