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James Buchan Quotes

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About James Buchan

James Buchan (born April 6, 1946) is a Scottish novelist, essayist, and literary critic who has made significant contributions to contemporary British literature. Born in Greenock, Scotland, he was educated at the University of St Andrews and the University of Cambridge, where he studied English Literature. In his early career, Buchan worked as a journalist for The Times of London and The Sunday Times, covering events such as the Iranian Revolution and the Falklands War. His experiences in these roles would later influence his work, particularly his novel "The Power-House" (1978), which reflects on the impact of media on modern society. Buchan's writing is marked by a deep interest in history, politics, and human psychology. His novels often explore themes of power, identity, and the consequences of historical events on individuals and societies. Some of his most notable works include "The Quarry" (1985), "Midwinter" (1994), and "The Genius of Unreason" (2000). Buchan's work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction, the Whitbread Novel Award, and the Prix Méditerranée Étranger. He was also awarded a CBE in 2005 for his services to literature. In addition to his novels, Buchan has written several acclaimed works of non-fiction, including "God's Calendar: A Journey through Church Time" (1989) and "The Making of Modern Strategy: Thinkers, Doctors, Intellectuals" (2013). He continues to write and lecture widely on literature, history, and politics. James Buchan's rich and diverse body of work reflects a deeply engaged mind grappling with complex issues of our time, making him an important figure in contemporary British literature.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"Those who have felt real fear know the truth: that it is a force more powerful than courage."

This quote suggests that true courage doesn't merely exist in the absence of fear, but rather in confronting and moving past fear. The 'real fear' refers to situations where one feels overwhelmed or anxious, a natural human response. The quote implies that fear, being a powerful emotion, can sometimes hold us back from taking action or making decisions. However, those who have experienced this fear and chosen to act despite it demonstrate a higher form of courage, as they acknowledge the power of their fear but decide to step forward anyway.

"Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude the richness of soul."

This quote suggests that loneliness stems from a lack of connection or fulfillment within oneself, while solitude refers to a state of inner depth and richness. In essence, it implies that when one is alone (solitary), it can lead to self-discovery, personal growth, and enrichment of the soul, as opposed to feeling lonely, which often arises from a sense of emptiness or lack of companionship.

"A mind laden with prejudice is like a drawbridge across a moat, let down to admit no fresh enemy, but shut against all new ideas."

This quote emphasizes that an unbiased and open-minded individual welcomes novelty and progress, while someone burdened by prejudices restricts themselves, limiting their experiences and growth. The mind laden with prejudice serves as a barrier preventing the entry of fresh, potentially beneficial ideas, thus hindering personal development and the exploration of new possibilities.

"Life's greatest hours are spent in the quiet, unspectacular moments when we are totally absorbed in something we find fascinating."

This quote by James Buchan emphasizes that life's most profound moments often occur in ordinary, unassuming circumstances. It suggests that true happiness and fulfillment can be found in the deeply engaged, focused, and absorbed state we enter when we immerse ourselves in something fascinating or captivating, regardless of its spectacle or external validation. These quiet, simple instances foster personal growth, contentment, and a deeper connection with our interests and passions, making them truly precious parts of our lives.

"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light."

This quote by James Buchanan explores human fear and its impact on personal growth and understanding. He suggests that fear of the unknown (symbolized as 'the dark') is a natural response, especially in children. However, he argues that as adults, if we remain afraid of new ideas, perspectives, or situations (symbolized as 'the light'), it represents a significant tragedy because we limit our potential for growth and knowledge. The fear of the light can hinder us from facing reality, learning, evolving, and making progress in life.

A century ago, petroleum - what we call oil - was just an obscure commodity; today it is almost as vital to human existence as water.

- James Buchan

Water, Existence, Almost, Commodity

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 dear it has to be heavily subsidised. They leave to future generations the task, and most of the cost, of making safe sites that have been polluted half-way to eternity.

- James Buchan

Been, Radioactive, Lethal, Nuclear Power

Ever since the destruction of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258, the Muslim world has been in slow decline relative to the west. With Napoleon's invasion of Egypt and the creeping British annexation of Muslim India, that decline took on a malign aspect.

- James Buchan

Napoleon, Took, Baghdad, Creeping

By pouring money and goods into devastated regions, foreign aid workers sometimes compound the disruption and debauch the survivors.

- James Buchan

Foreign Aid, Regions, Foreign

The theory of permanent Muslim-Christian enmity, though it flourishes in the caves of Tora Bora and parts of the American academy, was long ago exploded by the historians.

- James Buchan

Historians, Though, Exploded, Enmity

Unlike despotisms, modern democracies are not supposed promiscuously to accumulate property and then charge their taxpayers to maintain it. But that is what they do. Governments are always trying to extend their responsibilities and their estates, and it is very hard for parliaments to reign them in.

- James Buchan

Maintain, Very, Estates, Extend

There are signs that the age of petroleum has passed its zenith. Adjusted for inflation, a barrel of crude oil now sells for three times its long-run average. The large western oil companies, which cartellised the industry for much of the 20th century, are now selling more oil than they find, and are thus in the throes of liquidation.

- James Buchan

Average, Inflation, Industry, Liquidation

Governments of rich countries spend some $6bn of tax money a year on disaster relief and development aid overseas, while each new earthquake, famine or tidal wave can attract 1,000 aid organisations, from the United Nations Children's Fund and Oxfam to the 'Jesus Brigades' of the American south and other charitable adventurers.

- James Buchan

Some, Other, United Nations, Famine

The aircraft that blew up the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington conveyed several messages to the world, of which one of the least remarked is this: the Muslims of the world are suffering.

- James Buchan

Suffering, New, Which, Conveyed

Soaring prices for crude oil, falling production surpluses, wild speculation in commodities, a rush into the precious metals, turmoil in the Middle East, assertive oil producers: it is 1973-74 all over again, and at dictation speed.

- James Buchan

Production, Commodities, Turmoil

Financial crises are like fireworks: they illuminate the sky even as they go pop.

- James Buchan

Finance, Sky, Crises, Fireworks

Saudi Arabia is a puritanical state that claims a monopoly of wisdom and virtue.

- James Buchan

Arabia, Puritanical, Claims

There are about 15 million Muslims in the EU. They face ignorance, insult and even persecution. They cannot be wished away. To impose Enlightenment freedoms is self-defeating. Anyway, the Muslims have their own enlightenment.

- James Buchan

Own, Away, Persecution, EU

To make a love story, you need a couple of young people, but to reflect on the nature of love, you're better off with old ones. That is a fact of life and literature - and of the novel ever since it fell in love with love in the 18th century.

- James Buchan

Love, Fact, Couple, 18th Century

Up until the Depression, recession had a moral character: it was supposed to purge the body economic of the greed and excess that attends a business expansion.

- James Buchan

Business, Body, Had, Purge

The truth is, of course, that history is not completed in modern commerce any more than philosophy is perfected in political economy. In other words, there is nothing timeless or God-given about filling stations and penicillin and plastic bags.

- James Buchan

Other, Penicillin, Bags, In Other Words

Of all the failed technologies that litter the onward march of science - steam carriages, zeppelins, armoured trains - none has been so catastrophic to prosperity as the last century's attempt to generate electricity from nuclear fission.

- James Buchan

Been, Trains, None, Litter

Cause and effect, the riddle of all history, is a particular devil in financial history; and never more so than today, where entire classes of security are collapsing not on public exchanges and stock-tickers but because there are no markets to establish prices this side of nothing.

- James Buchan

Financial, Devil, Classes, Collapsing

Since the attack on the United States on September 11 2001, and the US retaliation in Afghanistan and Iraq, there must be few people who have not felt a twinge of nostalgia for the cold war.

- James Buchan

Nostalgia, United States, Retaliation

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 Europe was wrenched from its normal purposes and converted into a machine for killing.

- James Buchan

Wealth, Adolf, Which, Converted

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

- James Buchan

Children, Like, Punished, Errors

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 of the world.

- James Buchan

Rest, Thought, Dominion, Organisation

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

- James Buchan

Business, Always, Profits, Profit

One of the admirable features of British novelists is that they have no scruple about setting their stories in foreign settings with wholly foreign personnel.

- James Buchan

Stories, Settings, Novelists, Admirable

The year 2008 was a reminder to those who had forgotten that there is such a thing as history and that the cycle of famine and feast in commerce, first identified in antiquity and well understood in the Middle Ages, was not suddenly abolished in modern times.

- James Buchan

Year, Had, Modern Times, Identified

Were there peace and justice in the Middle East, the Arabs would no more need their tinhorn dictators than they would their corpulent princes.

- James Buchan

Middle, More, Need, Arabs

When Gordon the Brown, in London in 1997, commissioned a great inquisition or survey of his new realm, the result was the so-called national asset register, which was immediately dubbed by the boomers of the UK Treasury 'the modern Domesday Book.'

- James Buchan

Book, London, Boomers, Treasury

The prevailing ideology of the modern west - which is political economy - is in the doghouse. Having failed to notice atmospheric pollution, the economists then frightened themselves with the sort of financial crisis they said they had abolished.

- James Buchan

Financial, Prevailing, Political Economy

The world survived the fall of the Roman empire and will no doubt outlast our own so much more splendid civilisation.

- James Buchan

Will, More, Roman Empire, Civilisation

When William the Conqueror commissioned a great survey of his English realm at Gloucester in 1085, the result was a work so thorough, fair, dispassionate, and wide-ranging that it seemed to the succeeding generations to have come from another world.

- James Buchan

Fair, Generations, Another, Conqueror

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