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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.

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
Writing
Discover
Good
Species
Time
Careers
World
Humanity
Itch
Creative
Historians
History
Historian
Write
Endeavor
Makes
Destructive

More quotes by Paul Johnson

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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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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 the CIA and KGB, like God and Satan, fight Miltonic battles across five continents.
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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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You know you're an Arizona native when you have to look up mass transit in the dictionary.
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I've been having an affair, but I still believe in family values.
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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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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 we want foxes, to observe and delight in, we must have hunting.
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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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Democracy has many enemies, and the terrorist is only one of them.
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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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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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I like that lady - Sarah Palin. She's great. I like the cut of her jib.
Paul Johnson
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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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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.
Paul Johnson
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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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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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