# John Buchan - Quotes: 15 - Author page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-buchan ## Books - [Salute to Adventurers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-buchan/salute-to-adventurers.md) — 6 quotes - [The Thirty-Nine Steps](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-buchan/the-thirty-nine-steps.md) — 1 quote - [Witch Wood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-buchan/witch-wood.md) — 8 quotes ## Recently added quotes > And at times I'm tempted to think that our way and the Kirk's way is not God's way, for we're apt to treat the natural man as altogether corrupt, and put him under over-strict pains and penalties, whereas there's matter in him that might be shaped to the purposes of grace. If there's original sin, there's likewise original innocemce. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-buchan/witch-wood/and-at-times.md) > If the Kirk confines human nature too strictly, it will break out in secret ways, for men and women are born into a terrestrial world, though they have hopes of Heaven. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-buchan/witch-wood/if-the-kirk.md) > There come moments to every man when he is thankful to be alive, and every breath drawn is a delight; so at that hour I praised my Maker for His good earth, and for sparing me to rejoice in it. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-buchan/salute-to-adventurers/there-come-moments.md) > The profession of religion was not the same thing as godliness, and he was coming to doubt whether the insistence upon minute conformities of outward conduct and the hair-splitting doctrines were not devices of Satan to entangle souls. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-buchan/witch-wood/the-profession-of-religion.md) > “Man, I’ve often thought that an innkeeper would make the best story-teller in the world.” > > “Not now,” he said eagerly. “Maybe in the old days when you had pilgrims and ballad-makers and highwaymen and mail-coaches on the road. But not now. Nothing comes here but motor-cars full of fat women, who stop for lunch, and a fisherman or two in the spring, and the shooting tenants in August. There is not much material to be got out of that. I want to see life, to travel the world, and write things like Kipling and Conrad. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-buchan/the-thirty-nine-steps/man-ive-often.md) > I never mind choler in a man if he have also honesty and good sense. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-buchan/salute-to-adventurers/i-never-mind.md) > They were happy years, the four I spent in Glasgow, for I was young and ardent, and had not yet suffered the grave miscarriage of hope which is our human lot. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-buchan/salute-to-adventurers/they-were-happy.md) > [T]he Kirk of Scotland as at present guidit […] is a kind o' Papery wi' fifty Papes instead o' ane. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-buchan/witch-wood/t-he-kirk-of-scotland.md) > 'I'm in the Lord's hands,' he said humbly. 'I'm but a penny whistle for His breath to blow on.' This he said with such solemnity that the meaning of a fanatic was suddenly revealed to me. One or two distorted notions, a wild imagination, and fierce passions, and there you have the ingredients ready. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-buchan/salute-to-adventurers/im-in-the.md) > [T]here was never an army that did not accuse its enemies of barbarity. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-buchan/witch-wood/t-here-was-never.md) > Honest intention will not cure faulty practice. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-buchan/witch-wood/honest-intention-will.md) > 'What does a woman desire?' she asked, speaking as if to herself, and her voice was soft as she gazed over the valley. 'Men think it is a handsome face or a brisk air or a smooth tongue. And some will have it that it is a deep purse or a high station. But I think it is the honest heart that goes all the way with a woman's love. We are not so blind as to believe that the glitter is the gold. We love romance, but we seek it in its true home.' [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-buchan/salute-to-adventurers/what-does-a-woman.md)