52+ Paul Johnson Quotes On Education, Success And Worship

Paul Johnson was a British journalist and author. He was known for his biographies of famous figures such as Churchill, Napoleon and Picasso, as well as his political and cultural commentaries. He was also a columnist for The Spectator and the New Statesman, and wrote regularly for The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Paul Johnson on leadership, education, success.

Top 10 Paul Johnson Quotes

1. Nothing appeals to intellectuals more than the feeling that they represent 'the people'. Nothing, as a rule, is further from the truth
2. The Second World War took place not so much because no one won the First, but because the Versailles Treaty did not acknowledge this truth.
3. A deliberate plan is not always necessary for the highest art; it emerges.
4. Global warming, like Marxism, is a political theory of actions, demanding compliance with its rules.
5. The most socially subversive institution of our time is the one-parent family.
6. The most evil person I ever met was a toss-up between Pablo Picasso and the publisher-crook Robert Maxwell.
7. In the long term, it is desirable that the human race, faced with the prospect of extinction on Earth, should prepare an escape route for itself to another inhabitable planet.
8. I've been having an affair, but I still believe in family values.
9. Every good historian is almost by definition a revisionist. He looks at the accepted view of a particular historic episode or period with a very critical eye.
10. Conservation of energy. Never stand up when you can sit down, and never sit down when you can lie down.

Paul Johnson Short Quotes

• If we want foxes, to observe and delight in, we must have hunting.
• There are no inevitabilities in history
• It takes less than a decade for today's luxury to become a universal necessity.
• As the CIA and KGB, like God and Satan, fight Miltonic battles across five continents.
• The word 'meaningful' when used today is nearly always meaningless.
• Democracy has many enemies, and the terrorist is only one of them.
• Next to courage, willpower is the most important thing in politics.
• Courage is the essential element in any great public man or woman.
• I like that lady - Sarah Palin. She's great. I like the cut of her jib.
• You know you're an Arizona native when you have to look up "mass transit" in the dictionary.

Paul Johnson Famous Quotes And Sayings

The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false. — Paul Johnson

If you depart from moral absolutes, you go into a bottomless pit. Communism and Nazism were catastrophic evils which both derived from moral relativism. Their differences were minor compared to their similarities. — Paul Johnson

My grandfather used to say, "Learn to like art, music and literature deeply and passionately. They will be your friends when things are bad". It is true: at this time of year, when days are short and dark, and one hardly dares to open the newspapers, I turn, not vainly either, to the great creators of the past for distraction, solace and help. — Paul Johnson

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

Marxism, Freudianism, global warming. These are proof - of which history offers so many examples - that people can be suckers on a grand scale. To their fanatical followers they are a substitute for religion. Global warming, in particular, is a creed, a faith, a dogma that has little to do with science. — Paul Johnson

A Stalin functionary admitted, Innocent people were arrested: naturally - otherwise no one would be frightened. If people were arrested only for specific misdemeanours, all the others would feel safe and so become ripe for treason. — Paul Johnson

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

The richness and variety, and indeed the advance, of our culture depend upon the continuation of this conflict [between conservatives and radicals], which is deeply rooted in human nature. — Paul Johnson

John Major is what he is: a man from nowhere, going nowhere, heading for a well-merited obscurity as fast as his mediocre talents can carry him. — Paul Johnson

In the last generation, with public Christianity in headlong retreat, we have caught our first, distant view of a de-Christianized world , and it is not encouraging. — Paul Johnson

Long periods of recession, which tend to be self-perpetuating, are usually ended by war, or by preparations for it. — Paul Johnson

The writer learns to write, in the last resort, only by writing. He must get words onto paper even if he is dissatisfied with them. A young writer must cross many psychological barriers to acquire confidence in his capacity to produce good work-especially his first full-length book-and he cannot do this by staring at a piece of blank paper, searching for the perfect sentence. — Paul Johnson

This book is dedicated to the people of America--strong, outspoken, intense in their convictions, sometimes wrong-headed but always generous and brave, with a passion for justice no nation has ever matched. — Paul Johnson

I very much wanted to be editor of the 'New Statesman!' But I never wanted to be prime minister, except maybe as a little boy. — Paul Johnson

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

Human beings are infinitely worth studying, especially the peculiarities that often go along with outstanding gifts. — Paul Johnson

If I see a door ajar, I push on it to see how far it will open, and if it opens wide I go through it. — Paul Johnson

The writer learns to write, in the last resort, only by writing. He must get words onto paper even if he is dissatisfied with them. — Paul Johnson

The urge to distribute wealth equally, and still more the belief that it can be brought about by political action, is the most dangerous of all popular emotions. It is the legitimation of envy, of all the deadly sins the one which a stable society based on consensus should fear the most. The monster state is a source of many evils; but it is, above all, an engine of envy. — Paul Johnson

Wisdom lies not in possessing knowledge - which quickly becomes outdated - but in perpetually seeking it. — Paul Johnson

In 1924 Mao took a Chinese friend, newly arrived from Europe, to see the notorious sign in the Shanghai park, 'Chinese and Dogs Not Allowed'. — Paul Johnson

...the century's most radical vice... the notion that human beings can be shoveled around like concrete. — Paul Johnson

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. — Paul Johnson

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

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

I was very fond of Princess Diana. She used to have me over to lunch to ask my advice. I'd give her good advice, and she'd say: 'I entirely agree. Paul, you're so right.' Then she'd go and do the opposite. — Paul Johnson

A capitalist economy hums when leading businessmen are bubbling with animal spirits and are prepared to sink their money into risky ventures. — Paul Johnson

His (Lenin's)humanitarianism was a very abstract passion. It embraced humanity in general but he seems to have had little love for, or even interest in, humanity in particular. He saw the people with whom he dealt, his comrades, not as individuals but as receptacles for his ideas. On that basis, and no other, they were judged. He judged man not by their moral qualities but by their views, or rather the degree to which they accepted his. — Paul Johnson

It is one of the many ironies of this period that, at a time when the intelligentsia were excoriating Mellon for tax-evasion, and contrasting the smooth-running Soviet planned economy with the breakdown in America, he was secretly exploiting the frantic necessities of the Soviet leaders to form the basis of one of America's most splendid public collections — Paul Johnson

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

For me this is the vital litmus test: no intellectual society can flourish where a Jew feels even slightly uneasy. — Paul Johnson

Hell is being trapped in a night-club with the'beautiful people'and forced to live in a'luxury penthouse flat'. — Paul Johnson

Life Lessons by Paul Johnson

1. Paul Johnson taught us that hard work and dedication can help us achieve our goals, no matter how difficult they may seem.
2. He also showed us that it is important to stay true to our values and beliefs, even in the face of adversity.
3. Lastly, Paul Johnson demonstrated that by being honest and open with others, we can build meaningful relationships and create a positive impact on the world.