Hilaire Belloc

“For I know that we laughers have a gross cousinship with the most high, and it is this contrast and perpetual quarrel which feeds a spring of merriment in the soul of a sane man.”

“Write as the wind blows and command all words like an army!”

“Life is a veil, its paths are dark and roughOnly because we do not know enoughWhen Science has discovered something moreWe shall be happier than we were before.”

“If we are to be happy, decent and secure of our souls: drink some kind of fermented liquor with one's food; go on the water from time to time; dance on occasions, and sing in a chorus...”

“The prospect of refreshment at the charges of another is an opportunity never to be neglected by men of clear commercial judgment.”

“When friendship disappears then there is a space left open to that awful loneliness of the outside world which is like the cold space between the planets. It is an air in which men perish utterly.”

“Loss and possession, death and life are one, There falls no shadow where there shines no sun.”

“Is there any reward?I'm beginning to doubt it.I am broken and bored,Is there any reward?Reassure me, Good Lord,And inform me about it.Is there any reward?I'm beginning to doubt it.”

“Whatever happens, we have gotThe Maxim gun, and they have not.”

“The accursed power which stands on privilege( and goes with women, champagne and bridge)Broke - and democracy resumed her reign ( which goes with bridge and women and champagne.”

“It has been discovered that with a dull urban population, all formed under a mechanical system of State education, a suggestion or command, however senseless and unreasoned, will be obeyed if it be sufficiently repeated.”

“Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine, there’s always laughter and good red wine.”

“No, she laughed." How on earth could that be done? If you try to laugh and say ‘No’ at the same time, it sounds like neighing — yet people are perpetually doing it in novels. If they did it in real life they would be locked up.”

“For no one, in our long decline,So dusty, spiteful and divided,Had quite such pleasant friends as mine,Or loved them half as much as I did.”

“The control of the production of wealth is the control of human life itself.”

“The Llama is a woolly sort of fleecy hairy goat, with an indolent expression and an undulating throat; like an unsuccessful literary man.”

“Do not, I beseech you, be troubled about the increase of forces already in dissolution. You have mistaken the hour of the night; it is already morning.”

“Oh, you should never, never doubt what nobody is sure about.”

“A strong Protectionist, believesIn everything but Heaven.For entertainment, dines, receives,Unmarried, 57.”

“The Church is a perpetually defeated thing that always outlives her conquerers.”

“Steep are the seas and savaging and coldIn broken waters terrible to try;And vast against the winter night the wold,And harbourless for any sail to lie.But you shall lead me to the lights, and IShall hymn you in a harbour story told.This is the faith that I have held and hold,And this is that in which I mean to die.”

“Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine,There’s always laughter and good red wine.At least I’ve always found it so.Benedicamus Domino!”

“I have wandered all my life, and I have traveled; the difference between the two being this, that we wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.”