Paul Johnson Quotes - Page 2

Every good historian is almost by definition a revisionist. He looks at the accepted view of a particular historic episode or period with a very critical eye.

For me this is the vital litmus test: no intellectual society can flourish where a Jew feels even slightly uneasy.

A capitalist economy hums when leading businessmen are bubbling with animal spirits and are prepared to sink their money into risky ventures.

The most intimidating world leader was Lyndon Johnson, who became U.S. President when John Kennedy was assassinated. He exulted in this power and liked to inspire fear.

You know you're an Arizona native when you have to look up "mass transit" in the dictionary.

Long periods of recession, which tend to be self-perpetuating, are usually ended by war, or by preparations for it.

Next to courage, willpower is the most important thing in politics.

In the past, the U.S. has shown its capacity to reinvent its gifts for leadership. During the 1970s, in the aftermath of the Nixon abdication and the Ford and Carter presidencies, the whole nation peered into the abyss, was horrified by what it saw and elected Ronald Reagan as president, which began a national resurgence.

The richness and variety, and indeed the advance, of our culture depend upon the continuation of this conflict [between conservatives and radicals], which is deeply rooted in human nature.

The writer learns to write, in the last resort, only by writing. He must get words onto paper even if he is dissatisfied with them. A young writer must cross many psychological barriers to acquire confidence in his capacity to produce good work-especially his first full-length book-and he cannot do this by staring at a piece of blank paper, searching for the perfect sentence.

Courage is the essential element in any great public man or woman.

Bismarck had cunningly taught the parties not to aim at national appeal but to represent interests. They remained class or sectional pressure-groups under the Republic. This was fatal, for it made the party system, and with it democratic parliamentarianism, seem a divisive rather than a unifying factor. Worse: it meant the parties never produced a leader who appealed beyond the narrow limits of his own following.

At some time in their careers, most good historians itch to write a history of the world, endeavor to discover what makes humanity the most destructive and creative of species.

Human beings are infinitely worth studying, especially the peculiarities that often go along with outstanding gifts.

To many, Heathrow in August is a paradigm of Hell.

Democracy has many enemies, and the terrorist is only one of them.

This book is dedicated to the people of America--strong, outspoken, intense in their convictions, sometimes wrong-headed but always generous and brave, with a passion for justice no nation has ever matched.

I was very fond of Princess Diana. She used to have me over to lunch to ask my advice. I'd give her good advice, and she'd say: 'I entirely agree. Paul, you're so right.' Then she'd go and do the opposite.

As a child I found railroad stations exciting, mysterious, and even beautiful, as indeed they often were.

In the long term, it is desirable that the human race, faced with the prospect of extinction on Earth, should prepare an escape route for itself to another inhabitable planet.

I've been having an affair, but I still believe in family values.

Scanning the newspapers and absorbing with a mixture of incredulity and indignation the enormities they report, I conclude that what England lacks today is, quite simply, sense.

I like that lady - Sarah Palin. She's great. I like the cut of her jib.

If I see a door ajar, I push on it to see how far it will open, and if it opens wide I go through it.

As the CIA and KGB, like God and Satan, fight Miltonic battles across five continents.