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Conservation of energy. Never stand up when you can sit down, and never sit down when you can lie down.

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
Conservation
Stand
Lying
Energy
Never

More quotes by Paul Johnson

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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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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.
Paul Johnson
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It takes less than a decade for today's luxury to become a universal necessity.
Paul Johnson
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There are no inevitabilities in history
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.
Paul Johnson
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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.
Paul Johnson
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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.
Paul Johnson
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Long periods of recession, which tend to be self-perpetuating, are usually ended by war, or by preparations for it.
Paul Johnson
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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.
Paul Johnson
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Human beings are infinitely worth studying, especially the peculiarities that often go along with outstanding gifts.
Paul Johnson
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As a child I found railroad stations exciting, mysterious, and even beautiful, as indeed they often were.
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.
Paul Johnson
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I've been having an affair, but I still believe in family values.
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.
Paul Johnson
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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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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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Nothing appeals to intellectuals more than the feeling that they represent 'the people'. Nothing, as a rule, is further from the truth
Paul Johnson
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The word 'meaningful' when used today is nearly always meaningless.
Paul Johnson
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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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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.
Paul Johnson