“Men are excessively ruthless and cruel not as a rule out of malice but from outraged righteousness. How much more is this true of legally constituted states, invested with all this seeming moral authority of parliaments and congresses and courts… — Paul Johnson Copy Share Image
Scanning the newspapers and absorbing with a mixture of incredulity and indignation the enormities they report, I conclude that what England lacks today is, quite simply, sense. — Paul Johnson Copy Share Image
“Partly by accident, partly by instinct, partly by deliberate contrivance, he was the first intellectual systematically to exploit the guilt of the privileged. And… — Paul Johnson Copy Share
“The Salem [witch] trials…can be seen as an example of the propensity of the American people to be convulsed by spasms of self-righteous rage… — Paul Johnson Copy Share
“Much of Sartre’s time in the 1960s was spent travelling in China and the Third World, a term invented by the geographer Alfred Sauvy… — Paul Johnson Copy Share
“He [Augustine] admitted: 'I am the sort of man who writes because he has made progress, and who makes progress by writing.' ” — Paul Johnson Copy Share
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… — Paul Johnson Copy Share
“Marx wrote about finance and industry all his life but he only knew two people connected with financial and industrial processes. One was his… — Paul Johnson Copy Share
“When we are dealing with concepts like freedom and equality, it is essential to use words accurately and in good faith. So the eighth… — Paul Johnson Copy Share
Margaret Thatcher had more impact on the world than any woman ruler since Catherine the Great of Russia. Not only did she turn around… — Paul Johnson Copy Share
Wisdom lies not in possessing knowledge - which quickly becomes outdated - but in perpetually seeking it. — Paul Johnson Copy Share
The planet Earth, though not threatened with destruction by man-made global warming, is by no means indestructible. There are many unpredictable events within our… — Paul Johnson Copy Share
“As Khrushchev put it, “He prodded the capitalist world with the tip of his bayonet.” He himself put it, “If I see a door… — Paul Johnson Copy Share
“We must never forget that the settlement of what is now the United States was only part of a larger enterprise. And this was… — Paul Johnson Copy Share
Where the quest for knowledge is relatively, and now almost absolutely, unrestrained, the public benefit will be great, especially where the certainty of the… — Paul Johnson Copy Share
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… — Paul Johnson Copy Share
