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John Buchan citations
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John Buchan, , 1er baron Tweedsmuir d'Elsfield, fils d'un pasteur calviniste, est un homme d'État. Il fut le quinzième gouverneur général du Canada, de 1935 à 1940. Également avocat, il est surtout connu comme éditeur et romancier de récits d'espionnage, dont le plus célèbre demeure Les 39 Marches , paru en 1915.

✵ 26. août 1875 – 11. février 1940   •   Autres noms Barone John Buchan
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John Buchan: 145   citations 0   J'aime

John Buchan: Citations en anglais

“[On the newspapers of the Craw Press:] Their politics are an opiate to prevent folk thinking.”

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John Buchan livre Castle Gay

Source: Castle Gay (1930), Ch. 3

“A great storm destroys much that is precious, but it may also clear the air and blow down trees which might have been obscuring the view and making our life stuffy, and reveal in our estate possibilities of development that we had not thought of.”

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John Buchan

"A University's Bequest to Youth" (10 October 1936)
Canadian Occasions (1940)

“You don't know old Charles as I know him. He's got into a queer set, and there's no knowing what mischief he's up to. He's perfectly capable of starting a revolution in Armenia or somewhere merely to see how it feels like to be a revolutionary. That's the damned thing about the artistic temperament.”

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John Buchan livre The Power-House

Source: The Power-House (1916), Ch. 1 "Beginning of the Wild-Goose Chase"

“What does a woman desire?' she asked, speaking as if to herself, and her voice was soft as she gazed over the valley. 'Men think it is a handsome face or a brisk air or a smooth tongue. And some will have it that it is a deep purse or a high station. But I think it is the honest heart that goes all the way with a woman's love. We are not so blind as to believe that the glitter is the gold. We love romance, but we seek it in its true home.”

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John Buchan livre Salute to Adventurers

Source: Salute to Adventurers (1915), Ch. 28 "How Three Souls Found Their Heritage"

“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?”

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John Buchan livre The Power-House

Source: The Power-House (1916), Ch. 3 "Tells of a Midsummer Night"

“If the Lord sends us war, we have got to face it like men, but God forbid we should manufacture war, and use it as an escape from our domestic difficulties. You can't expect a blessing on that.”

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John Buchan livre The Path of the King

Source: The Path of the King (1921), Ch. XIV "The End of the Road", II

“Oh, I agree he went mad in the end. It is the only explanation. Something must have snapped in that fine brain, and he saw the little bit more which we call madness. Thank God, you and I are prosaic fellows…”

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John Buchan

Space (1912)

“There come moments to every man when he is thankful to be alive, and every breath drawn is a delight; so at that hour I praised my Maker for His good earth, and for sparing me to rejoice in it.”

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John Buchan livre Salute to Adventurers

Source: Salute to Adventurers (1915), Ch. 16 "The Ford of the Rapidan"

“It was a very young man's confession of faith, and yet there was the glimmering of a truth at the back of it. It was my instinctive protest against the undue simplification of life. We are all a strange compound, and we shall never reach our full stature by starving certain parts of our nature of their due.”

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John Buchan livre A Lodge in the Wilderness

Source: A Lodge in the Wilderness (1906), Ch. X, p. 272

“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.”

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John Buchan

"A University's Bequest to Youth" (10 October 1936)
Canadian Occasions (1940)

“The things we call aristocracies and reigning houses are the last places to look for masterful men. They began strongly, but they have been too long in possession. They have been cosseted and comforted and the devil has gone out of their blood. Don't imagine that I undervalue descent. It is not for nothing that a great man leaves posterity. But who is more likely to inherit the fire — the elder son with his flesh-pots or the younger son with his fortune to find?”

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John Buchan livre The Path of the King

Prologue
The Path of the King (1921)

“I mused upon the ironic fate which had compelled a mathematical genius to make his sole confidant of a philistine lawyer, and induced that lawyer to repeat it confusedly to an ignoramus at twilight on a Scotch hill.”

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John Buchan

Space (1912)

“I have known fellows to whom the earth was so full of little pleasures that after the worst clouts they rose like larks from a furrow. A wise philosophy—but I had none of it. I always saw the little pageant of man's life like a child's peep-show beside the dark wastes of eternity.”

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John Buchan livre The Path of the King

Source: The Path of the King (1921), Ch. VIII "The Hidden City"

“The profession of religion was not the same thing as godliness, and he was coming to doubt whether the insistence upon minute conformities of outward conduct and the hair-splitting doctrines were not devices of Satan to entangle souls.”

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John Buchan livre Witch Wood

Source: Witch Wood (1927), Ch. VIII "The Second Blast"

“Time, they say, must the best of us capture,
And travel and battle and gems and gold
No more can kindle the ancient rapture,
For even the youngest of hearts grows old.”

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John Buchan livre Prester John

Dedication
Prester John (1910)

“You can help me to keep my head cool," was the answer. "You stand for the world of common sense which will always win in the long run. When I'm inclined to run amok you'll remind me of England. You'll lower the temperature.”

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John Buchan livre The House of the Four Winds

Source: The House of the Four Winds (1935), Ch. IV

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

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John Buchan

Pilgrim's Way (1940), p. 117
Memory Hold-The-Door (1940)

“I believe that every man has in his soul a passion for treasure-hunting, which will often drive a coward into prodigies of valour.”

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John Buchan livre Prester John

Source: Prester John (1910), Ch. X

“Most true points are fine points. There never was a dispute between mortals where both sides hadn't a bit of right.”

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John Buchan livre The Path of the King

Source: The Path of the King (1921), Ch. XIV "The End of the Road", II

“Mrs. Brisbane-Brown was a relic, but only the unthinking would have called her a snob. For snobbishness implies some sense of insecurity, and she was perfectly secure.”

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John Buchan livre Castle Gay

Source: Castle Gay (1930), Ch. 6

“[A] falsehood, which may be pardoned if it is to save another, is black sin if used by a coward to save himself.”

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John Buchan livre Witch Wood

Source: Witch Wood (1927), Ch. XIV "The Counterblast"

“He knew nothing accurately about any subject in the world, but he could clothe his ignorance in pontifical garments and give his confusion the accents of authority. He had a remarkable flair for discerning and elaborating the tiny quantum of popular knowledge on any matter.”

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John Buchan livre Castle Gay

Source: Castle Gay (1930), Ch. 2

“Perfect love casteth out fear, the Bible says; but, to speak it reverently, so does perfect hate.”

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John Buchan livre Prester John

Source: Prester John (1910), Ch. IX

“It was foreordained that I should go alone to Umvelos', and in the promptings of my own infallible heart I believed I saw the workings of Omnipotence. Such is our moral arrogance, and yet without such a belief I think that mankind would have ever been content to bide sluggishly at home.”

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John Buchan livre Prester John

Source: Prester John (1910), Ch. X

“It was a very happy time, but like all happy times it had no landmarks.”

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John Buchan livre A Lodge in the Wilderness

Source: A Lodge in the Wilderness (1906), Ch. X, p. 268

“I always try to suit my clothes to my company. It is the only way to be inconspicuous.”

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John Buchan livre The House of the Four Winds

Prologue
The House of the Four Winds (1935)

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

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John Buchan

Pilgrim's Way (1940), p. 117
Memory Hold-The-Door (1940)

“Public life is regarded as the crown of a career, and to young men it is the worthiest ambition. Politics is still the greatest and the most honorable adventure.”

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John Buchan

Pilgrim’s Way (1940)
Memory Hold-The-Door (1940)

“Statesmanship […] must consider first the fortunes of the common people. No statesman has a right to risk these fortunes unless he be reasonably assured of success.”

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John Buchan

Source: Midwinter (1923), Ch. II

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