The most socially subversive institution of our time is the one-parent family. Paul Johnson
While the music is performed, the cameras linger savagely over the faces of the audience. What a bottomless chasm of vacuity they reveal! Those who flock round the Beatles, who scream themselves into hysteria, whose vacant faces flicker over the TV screen, are the least fortunate of their generation, the dull, the idle, the failures…Paul Johnson
The word ‘meaningful’ when used today is nearly always meaningless. Paul Johnson
It does not always pay to have a golden tongue unless one has the ability to hold it. Paul Johnson
The study of history suggests that the sum total of intolerance in society does not vary much. What changes is the object against which it is directed. Those who shape the conventional wisdom at the top are always anxious to censor unorthodoxy, thus demonstrating their power and consolidating their grip. Paul Johnson
Nothing appeals to intellectuals more than the feeling that they represent ‘the people’. Nothing, as a rule, is further from the truth. Paul Johnson
The truth is, language is the most democratic of all institutions. People determine how they speak themselves, and they are driven by simple self-interest. Paul Johnson
The creation of the United States of America is the greatest of all human adventures. Paul Johnson
It could be argued that the growing reluctance of gifted men and women to become candidates for national office explained the presidency of Bill Clinton. Paul Johnson
America is still the first, best hope for the human race. Looking back on its past, and forward to its future, the auguries are that it will not disappoint an expectant humanity. Paul Johnson
If there is one lesson the history of Ireland teaches, it is that military victory is not enough. Paul Johnson