Civilisation Quote by James Buchan

The prevailing ideology of the modern west - which is political economy - is in the doghouse. Having failed to notice atmospheric pollution, the…

— James Buchan

For 50 years, nuclear power stations have produced three products which only a lunatic could want: bomb-explosive plutonium, lethal radioactive waste and electricity so…

— James Buchan

Europe and North America, we are told, are less dependent on energy-intensive heavy industry than in the 1960s and 1970s. It seems we squeeze…

— James Buchan

Economists, like royal children, are not punished for their errors.

— James Buchan

In falling markets, there is nothing that has not happened before. The bear or pessimist sees only the past, which imprisons the wretched financial…

— James Buchan

The world dominion of western thought, forms of organisation, technology and military force is not God-given, nor eternal, nor greatly appreciated by the rest…

— James Buchan

Whatever else it was, Adolf Hitler's short-lived regime was also a colossal industrial process by which the wealth and productive power of much of…

— James Buchan

Ever since the destruction of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258, the Muslim world has been in slow decline relative to the west. With…

— James Buchan

“My wages came to me not to satisfy any need-- mine were anyway private, affectionate, atrocious-- but to make my needs universal: to incorporate…

— James Buchan

For all their current prestige, Osama bin Laden and the suicide bombers are still regarded in all but the most desperate districts of Gaza…

— James Buchan

Almost all novels are improved by cutting from the top. On their first pages, authors parade those favourite effects which disgust the impartial reader.

— James Buchan

Profits in business always depend on the rate of interest: the higher the interest, the higher the rate of profit required.

— James Buchan