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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.

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
Ajar
Opens
Push
Wide
Door
Doors
Open

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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 we want foxes, to observe and delight in, we must have hunting.
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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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There are no inevitabilities in history
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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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I like that lady - Sarah Palin. She's great. I like the cut of her jib.
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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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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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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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It takes less than a decade for today's luxury to become a universal necessity.
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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'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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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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The word 'meaningful' when used today is nearly always meaningless.
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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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Conservation of energy. Never stand up when you can sit down, and never sit down when you can lie down.
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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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