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Scanning the newspapers and absorbing with a mixture of incredulity and indignation the enormities they report, I conclude that what England lacks today is, quite simply, sense.

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
America
Report
Scanning
Today
Reports
Incredulity
World
Newspapers
Conclude
England
Indignation
Simply
Lacks
Modern
Absorbing
Quite
Mixture
Sense
Mixtures
Enormities

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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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If we want foxes, to observe and delight in, we must have hunting.
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Nothing appeals to intellectuals more than the feeling that they represent 'the people'. Nothing, as a rule, is further from the truth
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There are no inevitabilities in history
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I've been having an affair, but I still believe in family values.
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It takes less than a decade for today's luxury to become a universal necessity.
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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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Democracy has many enemies, and the terrorist is only one of them.
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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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Human beings are infinitely worth studying, especially the peculiarities that often go along with outstanding gifts.
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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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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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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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Long periods of recession, which tend to be self-perpetuating, are usually ended by war, or by preparations for it.
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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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You know you're an Arizona native when you have to look up mass transit in the dictionary.
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