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As a child I found railroad stations exciting, mysterious, and even beautiful, as indeed they often were.

Paul Johnson

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Paul Johnson
Age: 96
Born: 1928
Born: November 2
Editor
Historian
Journalist
Speechwriter
Writer
Manchester
England
Paul Bede Johnson
Child
Often
Found
Railroad
Beautiful
Railroads
Children
Stations
Even
Mysterious
Indeed
Exciting

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In the past, the U.S. has shown its capacity to reinvent its gifts for leadership. During the 1970s, in the aftermath of the Nixon abdication and the Ford and Carter presidencies, the whole nation peered into the abyss, was horrified by what it saw and elected Ronald Reagan as president, which began a national resurgence.
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At some time in their careers, most good historians itch to write a history of the world, endeavor to discover what makes humanity the most destructive and creative of species.
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I've been having an affair, but I still believe in family values.
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This book is dedicated to the people of America--strong, outspoken, intense in their convictions, sometimes wrong-headed but always generous and brave, with a passion for justice no nation has ever matched.
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The writer learns to write, in the last resort, only by writing. He must get words onto paper even if he is dissatisfied with them.
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It takes less than a decade for today's luxury to become a universal necessity.
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If I see a door ajar, I push on it to see how far it will open, and if it opens wide I go through it.
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Conservation of energy. Never stand up when you can sit down, and never sit down when you can lie down.
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You know you're an Arizona native when you have to look up mass transit in the dictionary.
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If anti-Semitism is a variety of racism, it is a most peculiar variety, with many unique characteristics. In my view as a historian, it is so peculiar that it deserves to be placed in a quite different category. I would call it an intellectual disease, a disease of the mind, extremely infectious and massively destructive.
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The word 'meaningful' when used today is nearly always meaningless.
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Hell is being trapped in a night-club with the'beautiful people'and forced to live in a'luxury penthouse flat'.
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Long periods of recession, which tend to be self-perpetuating, are usually ended by war, or by preparations for it.
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A Stalin functionary admitted, Innocent people were arrested: naturally - otherwise no one would be frightened. If people were arrested only for specific misdemeanours, all the others would feel safe and so become ripe for treason.
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In the long term, it is desirable that the human race, faced with the prospect of extinction on Earth, should prepare an escape route for itself to another inhabitable planet.
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Democracy has many enemies, and the terrorist is only one of them.
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As the CIA and KGB, like God and Satan, fight Miltonic battles across five continents.
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I was very fond of Princess Diana. She used to have me over to lunch to ask my advice. I'd give her good advice, and she'd say: 'I entirely agree. Paul, you're so right.' Then she'd go and do the opposite.
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Human beings are infinitely worth studying, especially the peculiarities that often go along with outstanding gifts.
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My grandfather used to say, Learn to like art, music and literature deeply and passionately. They will be your friends when things are bad. It is true: at this time of year, when days are short and dark, and one hardly dares to open the newspapers, I turn, not vainly either, to the great creators of the past for distraction, solace and help.
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