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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.

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
Safe
Treason
Fear
Ripe
Others
Arrested
Become
Frightened
Feel
Specific
Feels
Naturally
Functionary
Would
Innocent
Stalin
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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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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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It takes less than a decade for today's luxury to become a universal necessity.
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I've been having an affair, but I still believe in family values.
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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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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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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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As a child I found railroad stations exciting, mysterious, and even beautiful, as indeed they often were.
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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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If we want foxes, to observe and delight in, we must have hunting.
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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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As the CIA and KGB, like God and Satan, fight Miltonic battles across five continents.
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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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Human beings are infinitely worth studying, especially the peculiarities that often go along with outstanding gifts.
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There are no inevitabilities in history
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I like that lady - Sarah Palin. She's great. I like the cut of her jib.
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I don't write huge books any more. I used to write 1,000 printed pages, but now I write short books. I did one on Napoleon, 50,000 words - enjoyed doing that. He was a baddie. I did one on Churchill, which was a bestseller in New York, I'm glad to say. 50,000 words. He was a goodie.
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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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The most evil person I ever met was a toss-up between Pablo Picasso and the publisher-crook Robert Maxwell.
Paul Johnson