Scottish novelist & politician (1875-1940)
The greatest victory is not that which is won on the battlefield, but that which is won over oneself.
JOHN BUCHAN
The Path of the King
There may be Peace without Joy, and Joy without Peace, but the two combined make Happiness.
JOHN BUCHAN
Pilgrim's Way
Truth's like a dollar-piece, it's got two sides, and both are wanted to make it good currency.
JOHN BUCHAN
The Path of the King
A fool tries to look different: a clever man looks the same and is different.
JOHN BUCHAN
The 39 Steps
The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.
JOHN BUCHAN
Montrose and Leadership
The true test of a man's character is how he behaves when no one is watching.
JOHN BUCHAN
Midwinter
A man's inhumanity to man is only surpassed by his ignorance of his fellow man.
JOHN BUCHAN
A Lodge in the Wilderness
The true mark of a king is not his power or his wealth, but his compassion for his people.
JOHN BUCHAN
The Path of the King
What do we mean by spiritual development? Surely, the broadening and deepening of the mind till it regards the world in its true perspective, and the strengthening of the character so that the will is a tempered and unerring weapon in the charge of a man's soul. And this end is to be achieved only by the exercise of the mind upon the largest possible manifold of experience, and by the conflict of character with the alien forces of the world.
JOHN BUCHAN
A Lodge in the Wilderness
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.
JOHN BUCHAN
Prester John
There was never an army that did not accuse its enemies of barbarity.
JOHN BUCHAN
Witch Wood
There is no merit in an empire as such. Extension in space does not necessarily mean spiritual advancement. The small community is easier to govern, and, it may well be, more pleasant to live in. If its opportunities are limited its perils are also circumscribed.
JOHN BUCHAN
Augustus
The law and the constitution are like a child's pants. They've got to be made wider and longer as the child grows so as to fit him. If they're kept too tight, he'll burst them; and if you're in a hurry and make them too big all at once, they'll trip him up.
JOHN BUCHAN
The Power-House
Their politics are an opiate to prevent folk thinking.
JOHN BUCHAN
Castle Gay
In our modern world we have seen inaugurated the reign of a dull bourgeois rationalism, which finds some inadequate reason for all things in heaven and earth and makes a god of its own infallibility.
JOHN BUCHAN
A Lodge in the Wilderness
All life is a gamble, and every man must choose his own risks.
JOHN BUCHAN
Salute to Adventurers
Every man at the bottom of his heart believes that he is a born detective.
JOHN BUCHAN
The Power-House
A falsehood, which may be pardoned if it is to save another, is black sin if used by a coward to save himself.
JOHN BUCHAN
Witch Wood
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
Prester John
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.
JOHN BUCHAN
"A University's Bequest to Youth", 10 October 1936