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.”

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

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

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

“Without humility there can be no humanity”

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

“But some love not the method of your first; Romance they count it, throwt away as dust; If I should meet with such, what should I say; Must I slight them as they slight me, or nay?”

“He disliked emotion, not because he felt lightly, but because he felt deeply.”

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

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

“The way of peace is the way of love. Love is the greatest power on earth. It conquers all things.”

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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