John Buchan
John Buchan
John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, GCMG, GCVO, CH, PCwas a Scottish novelist, historian and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth26 August 1875
dust romance firsts
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
firsts discouragement disaster
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.
civilization modern-life quiet
Civilization is a conspiracy. Modern life is the silent compact of comfortable folk to keep up pretences.
wall live-life thinking
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.
happiness answers given
What would you call the highest happiness? Wratislaw was asked. The sense of competence, was the answer, given without hesitation.
clever men trying
A fool tries to look different: a clever man looks the same and is different.
education mind kind
To live for a time close to great minds is the best kind of education.
spiritual book barometer
The book trade is a spiritual barometer of a nations well-being.
clothes trying way
I always try to suit my clothes to my company. It is the only way to be inconspicuous.
adventure men games
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.
laughing police brain
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.
wise growing-up men
Wise men never grow up; indeed, they grow younger, for they lose the appalling worldly wisdom of youth.
soul isms pessimism
Pessimism is the one ism which kills the soul.
greatness leadership task
The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.