Quotes by John Buchan

• Every man at the bottom of his heart believes that he is a born detective.
• The robe of flesh wears thin, and with the years God shines through all things.
• To live for a time close to great minds is the best kind of education.
• We can pay our debts to the past by putting the future in debt to ourselves.
• There may be Peace without Joy, and Joy without Peace, but the two combined make Happiness.
• Without humility there can be no humanity.
• The true definition of a snob is one who craves for what separates men rather than for what unites them.
• The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.
• The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope.
• The best prayers have often more groans than words.
• Prayer opens the heart to God, and it is the means by which the soul, though empty, is filled by God.
• He disliked emotion, not because he felt lightly, but because he felt deeply.
• Civilization is a conspiracy. Modern life is the silent compact of comfortable folk to keep up pretences.
• 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.
• Peace is that state in which fear of any kind is unknown.