33 James Buchan Quotes for You to Enjoy

James Buchan

British Novelist

Born: Jun 11, 1954

Financial Great History Money Power World

Related authors: Anne Bronte Charles Morgan Charlotte Bronte Hector Hugh Munro Helen Oyeyemi Jeanette Winterson Roald Dahl Zadie Smith

An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support. James Buchan

Man Atheist Support Invisible Means Who

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

Future Three Power Stations Future Generations Plutonium Cost Only Could Generations Most Safe Half-Way Making Dear Leave Been Years Task Sites Want Polluted Which Eternity Produced Products Electricity Radioactive Lethal Waste Nuclear Lunatic Nuclear Power

Bulls don't read. Bears read financial history. As markets fall to bits, the bears dust off the Dutch tulip mania of 1637, the Banque Royale of 1719-20, the railway speculation of the 1840s, the great crash of 1929. James Buchan

Great History Financial Fall Dust Markets Bits Bears Read Bulls Off Dutch Tulip Mania Crash Railway Speculation

Suicidal violence is not the exclusive property of the Muslim world. Suicide bombings were a tactic of nationalist struggles in 19th-century Europe and Russia, the far east during the second world war and the Vietnam war, and in modern Sri Lanka. James Buchan

War Property World Suicide East Muslim Muslim World Russia Tactic Struggles Exclusive Were Modern Nationalist Far Far East Vietnam Vietnam War Lanka Europe Second Violence World War Suicidal Second World War

Liberty in Islam is the liberty to be a Muslim, democracy likewise, individualism likewise. James Buchan

Democracy Liberty Islam Muslim Individualism Likewise

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

Punished Economists Like Errors Children Royal

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

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

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

Work Great World Result Thorough William Seemed Generations Fair Come Another His Survey Commissioned Succeeding Realm English Dispassionate Conqueror

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

Speed Wild East Rush Prices Crude Crude Oil Over Metals Falling Dictation Precious Commodities Middle Oil Middle East Soaring Again Turmoil Producers Production Assertive Speculation

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

History First Year Those Abolish Feast Had Reminder Identified Well Understood Times Commerce Antiquity Modern Forgotten Famine Middle Middle Ages Modern Times Ages Cycle Such A Thing Who Suddenly Thing

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

Business Depend Profit Rate Higher Always Interest Required Profits

The use of refined petroleum as fuel, which began in the 1850s, freed hundreds of millions of people from the toil of centuries, gave hundreds of millions more a life of ease and plenty, and, by allowing great cities to feed themselves from every corner of the world, multiplied the population of the earth fivefold. James Buchan

Life Great People World Every Corner Gave Earth Hundreds Ease Plenty Cities More Allowing Freed Feed Refined Began Which Fuel Centuries Themselves Toil Use Population Petroleum Millions Millions Of People

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

If good history is dispassionate history, it must naturally wait until the passions of the period subside. James Buchan

Good History Wait Must Until Period Passions Naturally Dispassionate

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

Depression Character Business Greed Recession Moral Moral Character Purge Economic Excess Had Supposed Until Up Expansion Body

What holds an Arab leader in power is a mixture of violence and prestige. Both President Assad and King Hussein were felt to have defended Arab interests against the world. That, in the end, is more important than what they wear on their head. James Buchan

World King Power Leader Important President Arab Prestige Wear Hussein More Both Head Felt Were Mixture End Than In The End Holds Against Interests Violence Defended

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

Money Year Rich United Nations Aid Other Wave Spend Earthquake Relief Charitable Some Development Countries Adventurers New Disaster Attract Tidal Overseas South Governments American Nations Oxfam Famine Tax Children Tax Money While Rich Countries Organisations Each Brigade Fund United Jesus

Last chances in the Middle East have been two a dirham since the 1950s. Each year the enmities are more profound, the despots more bloodthirsty and clownish, the violence more extreme, and the conditions of ordinary existence more ghastly. James Buchan

One of the consequences of the Iranian revolution has been an explosion of history. A country once known only from British consular reports and intrepid travelogues is now awash with historical documents, letters, diaries, grainy video, weblogs and secret police files of questionable authenticity. James Buchan

History Police Country Revolution Consequences Secret Once Has-Been Only Known Documents Been Diaries Iranian Questionable Historical Authenticity Reports Video Explosion Files Now Letters British

In falling markets, there is nothing that has not happened before. The bear or pessimist sees only the past, which imprisons the wretched financial soul in eternal circles of boom and bust and boom again. James Buchan

Soul Financial Past Before Nothing Pessimist Circles Boom Markets Only Sees Bear Wretched Falling Happened Which Again Eternal Bust

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

Today History Financial Cause Devil Nothing Side Markets Collapsing Security Classes Entire More Prices Never Exchanges Particular Because Effect Than Establish Where Public Riddle

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