A little thing, lasting only a second, and the odds were a thousand to one that I might have had my eyes on my cards at the time and missed it. But I didn’t, and, in a flash, the air seemed to clear. Some shadow lifted from my brain, and I was looking at the three men with full and absolute recognition.

— John Buchan

John Buchan Quotes

Fortunately for mankind the brain in a life of action turns more to the matter in hand than to conjuring up the chances of the future.

— John Buchan

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

— John Buchan

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.

— John Buchan

Civilisation needs more than the law to hold it together. You see, all mankind are not equally willing to accept as divine justice what is called human law.

— John Buchan

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?

— John Buchan

You see only the productions of second-rate folk who are in a hurry to get wealth and fame. The true knowledge, the deadly knowledge, is still kept secret. But, believe me, my friend, it is there.

— John Buchan

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.

— John Buchan

Pessimism is the one ism which kills the soul.

— John Buchan

The secret belongs only to the Maker of good and faithful dogs.

— John Buchan

Capital, he said, had no conscience and no fatherland.

— John Buchan

Here were we wretched creatures of men making for each other’s throats, and outraging the good earth which God had made so fair a habitation.

— John Buchan

The more doubtful the political outlook the fiercer will be the dogmas which men create and contend for.

— John Buchan

We must all be fighters and strugglers, Lewie, and it is better to wear out than to rust out. It is bad to let choice things become easily familiar; for, you know, familiarity is apt to beget a proverbial offspring.” The.

— John Buchan

Our ignorance of the future has been wisely ordained of Heaven. For unless man were to be like God and know everything, it is better that he should know nothing. If he knows one fact only, instead of profiting by it he will assuredly land in the soup.

— John Buchan

I was not a murderer, but I had become an unholy liar, a shameless impostor, and a highwayman with a marked taste for expensive motor-cars.

— John Buchan

Pardon,′ he said, ‘I’m a bit rattled tonight. You see, I happen at this moment to be dead.

— John Buchan

When a man comes out of great danger, he is apt to be a little deaf to the call of duty.

— John Buchan

A little thing, lasting only a second, and the odds were a thousand to one that I might have had my eyes on my cards at the time and missed it. But I didn’t, and, in a flash, the air seemed to clear. Some shadow lifted from my brain, and I was looking at the three men with full and absolute recognition.

— John Buchan

Only by the possession of a sense of humour am I saved from insignificance.” To.

— John Buchan

There was more in those eyes than any common triumph. They had been hooded like a bird of prey, and now they flamed with a hawk’s pride. A white fanatic heat burned in them, and I realized for the first time the terrible thing I had been up against. This man was more than a spy; in his foul way he had been a patriot.

— John Buchan
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