101 Quotes by John Buchan

The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.

In the same week he would harass an Under-Secretary about horses from the Army, write voluminously to the press about a gun he had invented for potting aeroplanes, give a fancy-dress ball which he forgot to attend, and get in the semi-final of the racquets championship.

Tommy sniffed the spring breeze like a supercilious stag.

A man’s courage is like a horse that refuses a fence; you have got to take him by the head and cram him at it again. If you don’t, he will funk worse next time. I hadn’t enough courage to be able to take chances with it, though I was afraid of many things, the thing I feared most was being afraid.

I am an ordinary sort of fellow, not braver than other people, but I hate to see a good man downed, and that long knife would not be the end of Scudder if I could play the game in his place.

The true definition of a snob is one who craves for what separates men rather than for what unites them.

Well, she is my most beloved and adored kinswoman, and for her sake I would commit most crimes.

It was strange how fear had gone,now that we knew the worst and had a fighting man by our side.

You find hate more among journalists and politicians at home than among fighting men.