“Wise men never grow up; indeed, they grow younger, for they lose the appalling worldly wisdom of youth.”

— John Buchan, A Lodge in the Wilderness, 1906

About John Buchan

1875 – 1940

Scottish novelist and statesman, author of "The Thirty-Nine Steps".

“There may be Peace without Joy, and Joy without Peace, but the two combined make Happiness.”

“The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.”

“The Simple Life is the last refuge of complicated and restless souls.”

“The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.”

“Old age deprives the intelligent man only of qualities useless to wisdom.”

“The young have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations.”

“My loneliness was born when men praised my talkative faults and blamed my silent virtues.”

“Not to know what happened before you were born is to be a child forever.”

“No man who knows aught, can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free.”