Words matter. These are the best Paul Johnson Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
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.
Mr. Obama would be a disheartening president even during a super boom, with his grim demeanor and empty rhetoric, as well as his obvious hatred of business bravado.
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 very much wanted to live in Paris when I was in the army, and I was quite determined to. I could have become a dress designer: Dior was willing to take me on as an assistant, but he did not have an immediate vacancy.
In all its myriad manifestations, the language of anti-Semitism through the ages is a dictionary of non-sequiturs and antonyms, a thesaurus of illogic and inconsistency.
I very much wanted to be editor of the ‘New Statesman!’ But I never wanted to be prime minister, except maybe as a little boy.
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.
What strikes the historian surveying anti-Semitism worldwide over more than two millennia is its fundamental irrationality. It seems to make no sense, any more than malaria or meningitis makes sense.
I don’t write huge books any more. I used to write 1,000 printed pages, but now I write short books. I did one on Napoleon, 50,000 words – enjoyed doing that. He was a baddie. I did one on Churchill, which was a bestseller in New York, I’m glad to say. 50,000 words. He was a goodie.
Those who buy in to global warming wish to drastically curb human economic and industrial activities, regardless of the consequences for people, especially the poor.
Indeed it is the protean ability of Western civilization to be self-critical and self-correcting – not only in producing wealth but over the whole range of human activities – that constitutes its most decisive superiority over any of its rivals.
The freedom enjoyed in Western society under the rule of law and constitutional government explains both the quality of its civilization and its wealth.
Marxism, Freudianism, global warming. These are proof – of which history offers so many examples – that people can be suckers on a grand scale. To their fanatical followers they are a substitute for religion. Global warming, in particular, is a creed, a faith, a dogma that has little to do with science.
The United States is a concept that works very well, even in bad times. But that’s no reason to think its structure can be superimposed with success on any other part of the world, particularly when times are terrible.
When people talk about political correctness, the only element of any value is good manners.
Global warming, like Marxism, is a political theory of actions, demanding compliance with its rules.
As a child I found railroad stations exciting, mysterious, and even beautiful, as indeed they often were.
The most evil person I ever met was a toss-up between Pablo Picasso and the publisher-crook Robert Maxwell.
The idea that human beings have changed and are changing the basic climate system of the Earth through their industrial activities and burning of fossil fuels – the essence of the Greens’ theory of global warming – has about as much basis in science as Marxism and Freudianism.
I like that lady – Sarah Palin. She’s great. I like the cut of her jib.
Democracy has many enemies, and the terrorist is only one of them.
Courage is the essential element in any great public man or woman.
Germany’s Angela Merkel exudes an atmosphere of elderly exhaustion and pooped-out pessimism. Britain’s David Cameron, though by nature exuberant, feels he has to look and sound glum. And France’s leader, Francois Hollande, seems determined to drive every successful businessman out of the country.
Indeed, the study of universities and the great men and women who have attended them leads me to think that the best of these schools are characterized not so much by what they teach and how they teach it but by the extent they provide opportunities and encouragement for students to teach themselves.
It would be wrong to say I enjoy having rows, because that would be un-Christian. If people attack me, then I respond, or if they do very wicked things. Then they must be brought to book.
One of the marvelous things about Churchill is that whatever he was doing, whether fighting or arguing or despairing or bouncing about full of energy, jokes are never far away.
To many, Heathrow in August is a paradigm of Hell.
One of the categories of people I don’t like much are intellectuals. People say, ‘Oh, you’re an intellectual,’ and I say, ‘No!’ What is an intellectual? An intellectual is somebody who thinks ideas are more important than people.
Margaret Thatcher had more impact on the world than any woman ruler since Catherine the Great of Russia. Not only did she turn around – decisively – the British economy in the 1980s, she also saw her methods copied in more than 50 countries.
A capitalist economy hums when leading businessmen are bubbling with animal spirits and are prepared to sink their money into risky ventures.
