“If you can describe clearly without a diagram the proper way of making this or that knot, then you are a master of the English language.” IfsWayWritingLanguageMastersEnglish LanguageKnotsDiagrams Book:On Source: On
“Take the particular trick of false names. It seems to us particularly odious. We think when we show our contempt for those who use this subterfuge that we are giving them no more than they deserve. It is a meanness which we associate with criminals and vagabonds; a piece of crawling and sneaking...Men whose race is universally known, will unblushingly adopt a false name as a mask, and after a year or two pretend to treat it as an insult if their original and true name be used in its place.” IfsThinkingMenGivingYearsTwoUseShowsSeemsUsedNamesRaceKnownPiecesParticularDeserveTreatsOriginalsJewCriminalsTricksInsultMaskContemptAssociatesMeannessCrawlingVagabondsSubterfuge Book:The Jews Source: The Jews
“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.” PeopleIfsWritingTryingRealDoneWould BeEarthSoundNovelLaughingReal LifeLockedLocked Up Author:Hilaire Belloc
“If we do not restore the Institution of Property we cannot escape restoring the Institution of Slavery; there is no third course.” IfsCoursesThirdsInstitutionsSlaveryPropertyRestoring Book:The Servile State Source: The Servile State
“But if we are to retain freedom, then we can only do so by keeping the determining mass of the citizens the possessors of property with personal control over it, as individuals or as families. For property is the necessary condition of economic freedom in the full sense of that term. He that has not property is under economic servitude to him who has property, whether the possessor of it be another individual or the State.” IfsStatesWisdomPoliticsIndividualTermEconomyEconomicConditionsCitizensMassPropertyLiberalismOver ItServitudeEconomic Freedom Book:The Crisis Of Civilization Source: The Crisis Of Civilization
“Communism worked honestly by officials devoid of human frailties and devoted to nothing but the good of its slaves, would have certain manifest material advantages as compared with a proletarian wage-system where millions live in semi-starvation, and many millions more in permanent dread thereof. But even if it were administered thus Communism would only produce its benefits through imposing slavery.” IfsHumansWisdomCertainPoliticsMillionsEconomyProduceMaterialsBenefitsAdvantageSlaverySlaveHonestlyCommunismPermanentOfficialsLiberalismManifestDreadDevotedStarvationImposingFrailtyHuman Frailties Author:Hilaire Belloc
“Even if the wealth and power be well distributed throughout a community, its members will not be happy unless they are inwardly so, and obviously where the distribution is bad, where the few have a vast superfluity and the many are consumed by anxiety or want, or where a few controllers can exercise their will over the many, society has failed, even though its total wealth and power be increased.” IfsWantWellsWisdomPoliticsCommunityWealthEconomyExerciseMembersAnxietyLiberalismDistributionConsumedControllers Author:Hilaire Belloc
“In the same way the eminence attaching to the mere possession of great wealth disappoints us nine times out of ten, especially if the wealth has been accumulated rapidly. For great wealth is accumulated rapidly by cunning or chance, or a mixture of the two. Cunning has nothing to do with high qualities; it is rather a presumption against them; while chance has nothing to do with them either. Therefore it is that men are always complaining after meeting So-and-so, that he seemed to be astonishingly stupid, though he made a million in ten years and started as a pauper.” IfsMenWayYearsHas BeensMadeTwoPoliticsWealthChanceQualityMillionsEconomyStupidTenMeetingsMerePossessionComplainingNineLiberalismCunningMixturesDisappointPresumptionHigh QualityEminenceAlways Complaining Author:Hilaire Belloc
“Since it is to the advantage of the wage-payer to pay as little as possible, even well-paid labor will have no more than what is regarded in a particular society as the reasonable level of subsistence. The lower ranks of labor will commonly have less, and if public relief were afforded even up to the wage-level of the lowest ranks of labor, that relief would compete in the labor market; check or dry up the supply of wage-labor. It would tend to render the performance of work by the wage-earner redundant.” IfsWellsLittlesPoliticsLevelsPayEconomyParticularAdvantageLaborPerformancesPaidChecksDryLiberalismReasonableReliefLowestSubsistenceRedundantDry Up Author:Hilaire Belloc
“If antiquity be the only test of nobility, then cheese is a very noble thing ... The lineage of cheese is demonstrably beyond all record.” IfsRecordsFoodTestsCookingNobleCulinaryCheeseNobilityAntiquityLineage Author:Hilaire Belloc
“If any man gives you a wine you can't bear, don't say it is beastly... But don't say you like it. You are endangering your soul and the use of wine as well... Seek out some other wine good to your taste.” IfsMenGivingWellsSoulUseFoodBearsTasteCookingWineYour SoulCulinaryYou Like ItBeastly Author:Hilaire Belloc
“An institute run with such knavish imbecility that if it were not the work of God it would not last a fortnight.” IfsRunningLastsInstituteImbecilityFortnight Author:Hilaire Belloc
“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.” IfsHas BeensStatesPopulationCommandDullUrbanSuggestions Book:An Essay on the Restoration of Property Source: An Essay on the Restoration of Property
“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.” IfsKindSoulWaterGoes OnDrinkSecureOccasionsDecentLiquorChorus Author:Hilaire Belloc
“Is there no Latin word for Tea? Upon my soul, if I had known that I would have let the vulgar stuff alone.” IfsSoulStuffKnownMy SoulTeaLatinVulgarCoffee And TeaTea Coffee Author:Hilaire Belloc
“But if I be asked what sign we may look for to show that the advance of the faith is at hand I would answer by a word the modern world has forgotten: Persecution. When that shall once more be at work it will be morning.” IfsWorldLooksMayShowsHandsAnswersMorningModernForgottenWorking ItPersecutionModern World Author:Hilaire Belloc
“I am a Catholic. As far as possible, I go to Mass every day. This is a rosary. As far as possible, I kneel down and tell these beads every day. If you reject me on account of my religion, I shall thank God that He has spared me the indignity of being your representative.” IfsMassAccountsDown AndCatholicRejectsThank GodRepresentativesBeadsRosaryIndignity Author:Hilaire Belloc
“I shoot the Hippopotamus with bullets made of platinum, because if I use the leaden one his hide is sure to flatten em.” IfsMadeUseAnimalEmsBulletsPlatinumHippopotamus Author:Hilaire Belloc
