“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
“Though Rousseau writes about the General Will in terms of liberty, it is essentially an authoritarian instrument, an early adumbration of Lenin’s ‘democratic centralism’. Laws made under the General Will must, by definition, have moral authority. ‘The people making laws… — 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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
Wisdom lies not in possessing knowledge - which quickly becomes outdated - but in perpetually seeking it. — Paul Johnson Copy Share Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
![“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 against enemies, real or imaginary, of their society and way of living. Hence the parallels later drawn between Salem in 1692 and the “Red Scare” of 1919-20…” quote by Paul Johnson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/67d/paul-johnson-4585_american-people_the-salem-witch-trials-can-be-seen-as-an_82157.jpg)
![“He [Augustine] admitted: 'I am the sort of man who writes because he has made progress, and who makes progress by writing.'” quote by Paul Johnson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/24c/paul-johnson-4585_writer_he-augustine-admitted-i-am-the-sort-of-m_146973.jpg)
