John Buchan quotes

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. (John Buchan)
Every man at the bottom of his heart believes that he is a born detective. View quote
John Buchan
The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there. View quote
John Buchan
I have heard an atheist defined as a man who had no invisible means of support. View quote
John Buchan
We can pay our debts to the past by putting the future in debt to ourselves. View quote
John Buchan
He disliked emotion, not because he felt lightly, but because he felt deeply. View quote
John Buchan
Peace is that state in which fear of any kind is unknown. View quote
John Buchan
The true definition of a snob is one who craves for what separates men rather than for what unites them. View quote
John Buchan
The robe of flesh wears thin, and with the years God shines through all things. View quote
John Buchan
There may be Peace without Joy, and Joy without Peace, but the two combined make Happiness. View quote
John Buchan
To live for a time close to great minds is the best kind of education. (John Buchan)
Our sufferings have taught us that no nation is sufficient unto itself, and that our prosperity depends in the long run, not upon the failure of our neighbors but their successes. View quote
John Buchan
Most true points are fine points. There never was a dispute between mortals where both sides hadn't a bit of right. View quote
John Buchan
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. View quote
John Buchan
I believe that every man has in his soul a passion for treasure-hunting, which will often drive a coward into prodigies of valour. View quote
John Buchan
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. View quote
John Buchan
[W]ithout humour you cannot run a sweetie-shop, let alone a nation. View quote
John Buchan
Wise men never grow up; indeed, they grow younger, for they lose the appalling worldly wisdom of youth. View quote
John Buchan
Prayer opens the heart to God, and it is the means by which the soul, though empty, is filled by God. View quote
John Buchan
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. View quote
John Buchan
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. (John Buchan)
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? View quote
John Buchan
I always try to suit my clothes to my company. It is the only way to be inconspicuous. View quote
John Buchan
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. View quote
John Buchan
Any large-scale organization must lose some of the merits of its rudimentary beginnings. Quantity will have a coarsening effect on quality. View quote
John Buchan