Top quotes by John Buchan

You think that a wall as solid as the earth separates civilization from barbarism. I tell you the division is a thread, a sheet of glass. A touch here, a push there, and you bring back the reign of Saturn. Votes: 29

The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope. Votes: 13

Civilization is a conspiracy. Modern life is the silent compact of comfortable folk to keep up pretences. Votes: 12

Every man at the bottom of his heart believes that he is a born detective. Votes: 10

The true definition of a snob is one who craves for what separates men rather than for what unites them. Votes: 10

Wise men never grow up; indeed, they grow younger, for they lose the appalling worldly wisdom of youth. Votes: 10

That is the supreme value of history. The study of it is the best guarantee against repeating it. Votes: 9

Without humility there can be no humanity. Votes: 9

Leadership is only courage and wisdom, and a great carefulness of self. Votes: 8

There may be Peace without Joy, and Joy without Peace, but the two combined make Happiness. Votes: 7

Peace is that state in which fear of any kind is unknown. Votes: 7

London is like the tropical bush -- if you don't exercise constant care the jungle, in the shape of the slums, will break in. Votes: 7

The best prayers have often more groans than words. Votes: 7

To live for a time close to great minds is the best kind of education. Votes: 6

An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support. Votes: 6

We can pay our debts to the past by putting the future in debt to ourselves. Votes: 5

The robe of flesh wears thin, and with the years God shines through all things. Votes: 5

It struck me that Albania was the sort of place that might keep a man from yawning. Votes: 5

When a man comes out of great danger, he is apt to be a little deaf to the call of duty. Votes: 4

I am an ordinary sort of fellow, not braver than other people, but I hate to see a good man downed, and that long knife would not be the end of Scudder if I could play the game in his place. Votes: 4

He disliked emotion, not because he felt lightly, but because he felt deeply. Votes: 4

Prayer opens the heart to God, and it is the means by which the soul, though empty, is filled by God. Votes: 3

What would you call the highest happiness? Wratislaw was asked. The sense of competence, was the answer, given without hesitation. Votes: 2

It would scarcely be destruction," he replied gently. "Let us call it iconoclasm, the swallowing of formulas, which has always had its full retinue of idealists. And you do not want a Napoleon . All that is needed is direction, which could be given by men of far lower gifts than a Bonaparte. In a word, you want a Power-House, and then the age of miracles will begin. Votes: 2

I believe that all wisdom consists in caring immensely for a few right things, and not caring a straw about the rest. Votes: 2

It was foreordained that I should go alone to Umvelos', and in the promptings of my own infallible heart I believed I saw the workings of Omnipotence. Such is our moral arrogance, and yet without such a belief I think that mankind would have ever been content to bide sluggishly at home. Votes: 2

I believe that every man has in his soul a passion for treasure-hunting, which will often drive a coward into prodigies of valour. Votes: 2

The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there. Votes: 2

It was strange how fear had gone,now that we knew the worst and had a fighting man by our side. Votes: 1

Here were we wretched creatures of men making for each other's throats, and outraging the good earth which God had made so fair a habitation. Votes: 1

The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already. Votes: 0

And where the deepest current crawls/ Like thistledown the dainty fly falls./ Then from the depths a silver gleam/ Quick flashes, like a jewel bright./ Up through the waters of the stream/ An instant visible to sight/ As lightning cleaves to sombre sky/ A rainbow rises to the fly. Votes: 0

It's a great life, if you don't weaken, Votes: 0

I would be content with any job, however thankless, in any quarter, however remote, if I had the chance of making a corner of the desert blossom and a solitary place glad. Votes: 0

He who would valiant be against all disaster; let him in constancy follow the Master. There's no discouragement shall make him once relent; his first avowed intent to be a pilgrim. Votes: 0

I wondered whether the scientific modern brain could not get to the stage of realising that Space is not an empty homogeneous medium, but full of intricate differences, intelligible and real, though not with our common reality. Votes: 0

Civilisation is a conspiracy. Votes: 0

History gives us a kind of chart, and we dare not surrender even a small rushlight in the darkness. The hasty reformer who does not remember the past will find himself condemned to repeat it. Votes: 0

A fool tries to look different: a clever man looks the same and is different. Votes: 0

Bethink you of the blessedness. Every wife is like the Mother of God and has the hope of bearing a saviour of mankind. Votes: 0

You see only the productions of second-rate folk who are in a hurry to get wealth and fame. The true knowledge, the deadly knowledge, is still kept secret. But, believe me, my friend, it is there. Votes: 0

If those extra-social brains are so potent, why after all do they effect so little? A dull police-officer, with the machine behind him, can afford to laugh at most experiments in anarchy. Votes: 0

I was a peaceful sedentary man, a lover of a quiet life, with no appetite for perils and commotions. But I was beginning to realise that I was very obstinate. Votes: 0

To see what is right and not to do it is cowardice. It is never a question of who is right but what is right. Votes: 0

I always try to suit my clothes to my company. It is the only way to be inconspicuous. Votes: 0

The world was arrogant and self-satisfied, but behind all this confidence there was an uneasy sense of impending disaster. The old creeds, both religious and political , were largely in the process of dissolution, but we did not realise the fact , and therefore did not look for new foundations. Votes: 0

Most true points are fine points. There never was a dispute between mortals where both sides hadn't a bit of right. Votes: 0

You may hear people say that submarines have done away with the battleship, and that aircraft have annulled the mastery of the sea. That is what our pessimists say. But do you imagine that the clumsy submarine or the fragile aeroplane is really the last word of science? Votes: 0

Civilisation needs more than the law to hold it together. You see, all mankind are not equally willing to accept as divine justice what is called human law. Votes: 0

I believe everything out of the common. The only thing to distrust is the normal. Votes: 0

But some love not the method of your first; Romance they count it, throw't away as dust; If I should meet with such, what should I say; Must I slight them as they slight me, or nay Votes: 0

I once played the chief part in a rather exciting business without ever once budging from London . And the joke of it was that the man who went out to look for adventure only saw a bit of the game, and I who sat in my chambers saw it all and pulled the strings. 'They also serve who only stand and wait,' you know. Votes: 0

In our modern world we have seen inaugurated the reign of a dull bourgeois rationalism, which finds some inadequate reason for all things in heaven and earth and makes a god of its own infallibility. Votes: 0

The book trade is a spiritual barometer of a nations well-being. Votes: 0

Pessimism is the one ism which kills the soul. Votes: 0

Any large-scale organization must lose some of the merits of its rudimentary beginnings. Quantity will have a coarsening effect on quality. Votes: 0

Young girls passed me with romance still in their eyes, and others, a little older, with the romance dead. Votes: 0

The sea has formed the English character and the essential England is to be found in those who follow it. From blue waters they have learned mercifulness, and they have also learned - in the grimmest of schools - precision and resolution. The sea endures no makeshifts. If a thing is not exactly right it will be vastly wrong. Votes: 0

Our sufferings have taught us that no nation is sufficient unto itself, and that our prosperity depends in the long run, not upon the failures of our neighbors but their successes. Votes: 0

The Church of Christ is an anvil which has worn out many hammers. Our opponents may boast of their strength, but they do not realize what they have challenged. Votes: 0

The vows we take in the holy place bind us till we are purged of them at Inanda's Kraal. Till then no blood must be shed and no flesh eaten. It was the fashion of our forefathers. Votes: 0

Fortunately for mankind the brain in a life of action turns more to the matter in hand than to conjuring up the chances of the future. Votes: 0

[W]ithout humour you cannot run a sweetie-shop, let alone a nation. Votes: 0