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There are no inevitabilities in history

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
Inevitabilities
Inevitability
History
Inspirational

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As the CIA and KGB, like God and Satan, fight Miltonic battles across five continents.
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The Second World War took place not so much because no one won the First, but because the Versailles Treaty did not acknowledge this truth.
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The word 'meaningful' when used today is nearly always meaningless.
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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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The most evil person I ever met was a toss-up between Pablo Picasso and the publisher-crook Robert Maxwell.
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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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Conservation of energy. Never stand up when you can sit down, and never sit down when you can lie down.
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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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You know you're an Arizona native when you have to look up mass transit in the dictionary.
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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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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.
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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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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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If we want foxes, to observe and delight in, we must have hunting.
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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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Democracy has many enemies, and the terrorist is only one of them.
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