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" 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. "
Paul Johnson
World
Time
History
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" 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. "
Paul Johnson
Words
Short
Now
" 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. "
Paul Johnson
Say
Wrong
People
" 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. "
Paul Johnson
Look
Drive
Successful
" Courage is the essential element in any great public man or woman. "
Paul Johnson
Public
Any
Courage
" 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. "
Paul Johnson
Truth
Prove
Man
" 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. "
Paul Johnson
Me
Women
Think
" 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. "
Paul Johnson
Empty
Business
Rhetoric
" The only thing to be said for air travel is speed. It makes possible travel on a scale unimaginable before our present age. Between the ages of 20 and four-score I visited every country in Europe, all save two in Latin America, ditto in Africa, and most of Asia, not counting eight trips to Australia and 60 to the United States - all by air. "
Paul Johnson
Travel
Age
America
" 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. "
Paul Johnson
Consequences
People
Wish
" The whole world depends on America ultimately, particularly Britain. And also, I love America - a marvelous country. But in a sense I don't worry about America because I think America has such huge strengths - particularly its freedom of thought and expression - that it's going to survive as a top nation for the foreseeable future. "
Paul Johnson
Think
Love
Future
" 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. "
Paul Johnson
Over
Seems
Sense
" 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. "
Paul Johnson
Global Warming
Earth
Human
" Next to courage, willpower is the most important thing in politics. "
Paul Johnson
Courage
Politics
Important
" 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. "
Paul Johnson
Woman
Impact
Great
" 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. "
Paul Johnson
Think
World
Bad Times
" If anti-Semitism is a variety of racism, it is a most peculiar variety, with many unique characteristics. In my view as a historian, it is so peculiar that it deserves to be placed in a quite different category. I would call it an intellectual disease, a disease of the mind, extremely infectious and massively destructive. "
Paul Johnson
Unique
View
Intellectual
" Human beings are infinitely worth studying, especially the peculiarities that often go along with outstanding gifts. "
Paul Johnson
Human
Go
Studying
" When people talk about political correctness, the only element of any value is good manners. "
Paul Johnson
Value
Good
Manners
" 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. "
Paul Johnson
Only
Wealth
Civilization
" 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. "
Paul Johnson
Ideas
Important
More
" 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. "
Paul Johnson
Gifts
Past
Nation
" The freedom enjoyed in Western society under the rule of law and constitutional government explains both the quality of its civilization and its wealth. "
Paul Johnson
Quality
Society
Government
" 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. "
Paul Johnson
Who
Fear
Power
" 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. "
Paul Johnson
Never
Energy
Far Away
" Is there any possibility of giving international air travel, which we all need and use and hate, a touch of glamour, or even of reliable, soulless efficiency? I suspect future historians will puzzle over our failure. But by then, of course, we shall be in the age of mass space travel, with its fresh and unimaginable crop of horrors. "
Paul Johnson
Hate
Failure
Travel
" 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. "
Paul Johnson
Me
Live
Army
" Democracy has many enemies, and the terrorist is only one of them. "
Paul Johnson
Only
Them
Enemies
" I like that lady - Sarah Palin. She's great. I like the cut of her jib. "
Paul Johnson
Great
She
Like
" As a child I found railroad stations exciting, mysterious, and even beautiful, as indeed they often were. "
Paul Johnson
Railroad
Mysterious
Child
" 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. "
Paul Johnson
Thoughts
Men
History