John Buchan

“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.”

“We can pay our debts to the past by putting the future in debt to ourselves.”

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

“Civilization is a conspiracy. Modern life is the silent compact of comfortable folk to keep up pretences.”

“There may be Peace without Joy, and Joy without Peace, but the two combined make Happiness.”

“The robe of flesh wears thin, and with the years God shines through all things.”

“The more doubtful the political outlook the fiercer will be the dogmas which men create and contend for.”

“Prayer opens the heart to God, and it is the means by which the soul, though empty, is filled by God.”

“The best prayers have often more groans than words.”

“Peace is that state in which fear of any kind is unknown.”

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

“To live for a time close to great minds is the best kind of education.”

“Without humility there can be no humanity.”

“I get into a tearing passion about something I know very little about, and when I learn more my passion ebbs away.”

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

“The true definition of a snob is one who craves for what separates men rather than for what unites them.”

“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.”

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

“The secret belongs only to the Maker of good and faithful dogs.”

“This is all a tale of an older world and a forgotten countryside. At this moment of time change has come; a screaming line of steel runs through the heather of no-man’s-land, and the holiday-maker claims the valleys for his own. But this busyness is but of yesterday, and not ten years ago the fields lay quiet to the gaze of placid beasts and the wandering stars. This story I have culled from the grave of an old fashion, and set down for the love of a great soul and the poetry of life.”