226 Quotes by Paul Johnson

The most evil person I ever met was a toss-up between Pablo Picasso and the publisher-crook Robert Maxwell.

Over the last half-century, anti-Semitism has been the essential theology of the Arab world. The Arabs have wasted trillions in oil royalties on weapons of war and propaganda . . . In their flight from reason, they have failed to modernize or civilize their societies, to introduce democracy, or to consolidate the rule of law.

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.

Like many physical diseases, anti-Semitism is highly infectious, and can become endemic in certain localities and societies. Though a disease of the mind, it is by no means confined to weak, feeble, or commonplace intellects; as history sadly records, its carriers have included men and women of otherwise powerful and subtle thoughts.

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

There are no inevitabilities in history

It feels good. There's a rush in getting to go down and fight fire in different country you've never seen before, or in a different area.

...the century's most radical vice... the notion that human beings can be shoveled around like concrete.

If you depart from moral absolutes, you go into a bottomless pit. Communism and Nazism were catastrophic evils which both derived from moral relativism. Their differences were minor compared to their similarities.