“The spark once transmitted may smoulder for generations under ashes, but the appointed time will come, and it will flare up to warm the world.”

— John Buchan , book The Path of the King

Prologue
The Path of the King (1921)
Context: The spark once transmitted may smoulder for generations under ashes, but the appointed time will come, and it will flare up to warm the world. God never allows waste. And we fools rub our eyes and wonder, when we see genius come out of the gutter. It didn't begin there. We tell ourselves that Shakespeare was the son of a woolpedlar, and Napoleon of a farmer, and Luther of a peasant, and we hold up our hands at the marvel. But who knows what kings and prophets they had in their ancestry!

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John Buchan 145

British politician 1875–1940

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