226 Quotes by Paul Johnson

Would you like a little Sheesh with that Whine?

Wherever anti-Semitism took hold, social and political decline almost inevitably followed

A man who deliberately inflicts violence on the language will almost certainly inflict violence on human beings if he acquires the power. Those who treasure the meaning of words will treasure truth, and those who bend words to their purposes are very likely in pursuit of anti-social ones.

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.

Van Buren, like many American master-politicians since, was quite capable of combining party ruthlessness with high-mindedness. He was a political schizophrenic, admitting he abused power occasionally and vowing never to do it again (he did of course). ... American political history has since thrown up repeated exemplars of what might be called the Van Buren Syndrome --- men who could combine true zeal for the public interest with fanatical devotion to the party principle.

A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts.

The image of the scientist who puts the pursuit of truth before anything else has been shattered and replaced by a man on the make or a quasi-religious enthusiast who wants to prove his case at any cost. Science is becoming the tool of campaigning warfare, in which truth is the first casualty.

Once we got down into the technology, ... it was actually kind of scary. They made a lot of correct decisions and still ran into so many problems.

You would have a hard time not listening to those people, ... I'm not saying it would necessarily influence the way a person voted. But it is human nature if a vast majority of your campaign has been paid for by a relatively few number of people who contributed to it, you listen to them.