Paul Johnson
Paul Johnson
British journalist, author, and historian who edited the New Statesman and penned over forty works, including the 1959 novel, Left of Centre, and the 1997 non-fiction work, A History of the American People. He also wrote four works on art and architecture and two memoirs.
NationalityBritish
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth2 November 1928
reality horror devices
Euphemism is a human device to conceal the horrors of reality.
political vices century
...the century's most radical vice... the notion that human beings can be shoveled around like concrete.
political action global-warming
Global warming, like Marxism, is a political theory of actions, demanding compliance with its rules.
differences evil pits
If you depart from moral absolutes, you go into a bottomless pit. Communism and Nazism were catastrophic evils which both derived from moral relativism. Their differences were minor compared to their similarities.
believe scary affair
I've been having an affair, but I still believe in family values.
war world versailles
The Second World War took place not so much because no one won the First, but because the Versailles Treaty did not acknowledge this truth.
art planning intellect
A deliberate plan is not always necessary for the highest art; it emerges.
powerful earth-day arrogance
The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false.
people feelings appeals
Nothing appeals to intellectuals more than the feeling that they represent 'the people'. Nothing, as a rule, is further from the truth
bestseller enjoyed glad huge printed
I don't write huge books any more. I used to write 1,000 printed pages, but now I write short books. I did one on Napoleon, 50,000 words - enjoyed doing that. He was a baddie. I did one on Churchill, which was a bestseller in New York, I'm glad to say. 50,000 words. He was a goodie.
face homework needs year
I don't see how we could not do this. The homework has been done. The (budgetary) needs we're going to face this year are astronomical.
guaranteed job neat
That's one of the neat things about the academy. They're all guaranteed a job when they graduate.
behind kids pumps
That just really pumps the kids up. They let them know. They're doing something and they're actually behind them.
difficult somewhat
It's actually somewhat difficult for them not to be profitable.