“No theories and no pedantic statistics will ever prevent ordinary people from finding a meaning and a literature in their own lives: great tragedy when the baby dies; great comedy when the baby tries to eat the soap. We always take ourselves seriously; it is only learned men, in huge books, who take us frivolously, and make us feel like a swarm of flies.”

G.K. Chesterton in London Opinion April 2 1904, quoted in “Statistics” in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 28 #6 (July/August 2025)

“The muddle is not merely due to the sin of anger; that is, to people losing their tempers with each other. It is also due to the sin of sloth; to people not taking the trouble to listen to each other, or take note of what each other really says. My first point, therefore, is that sloth, intellectual sloth, as well as mere emotional anger, is a great modern foe to charity.”

G.K. Chesterton quoted, apparently from the BBC radio program “The Listener” in 1933, by Dale Ahlquist in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 28 #6 (July/August 2025)

“In Biblical days it was considered a miracle for an ass to speak; but today it would be a miracle if one kept quiet.”

“POSSIBLY FROM SOMEONE IN MISSOURI, OR ELSE ABOUT SOMEONE IN MISSOURI” quoted in “Other Suspects – V” in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 28 #6 (July/August 2025) p. 23.

“Humanity is far too complex to have calculations made about it.”

G.K. Chesterton in Illustrated London News April 15, 1933, quoted in “Statistics” in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 28 #6 (July/August 2025)

“To paraphrase Japanese Emperor Hirohito after the detonation of two atomic bombs on Japan in 1945, in the light of this week’s events, it is time for the ‘unthinkable.’ (The Japanese emperor acknowledged that the war had not gone ‘entirely as we had hoped.’)”

Conrad Black in National Post June 28, 2025 [re Gaza and Iran]

“Apparently, I must give you a lecture. I grimaced neither at your impudence nor at your sentiment, but at your diction and style. I condemn clichés, especially those that have been corrupted by fascists and communists. Such phrases as ‘great and noble cause’ and ‘fruits of their labour’ have been given an ineradicable stink by Hitler and Stalin and all their vermin brood. Besides, in this century of the overwhelming triumph of science, the appeal of the cause of human freedom is no longer that it is great and noble; it is more or less than that; it is essential. It is no greater or nobler than the cause of edible food or the cause of effective shelter. Man must have freedom or he will cease to exist as man. The despot, whether fascist or communist, is no longer restricted to such puny tools as the heel or the sword or even the machine gun; science has provided him weapons that can give him the planet; and only men who are willing to die for freedom have any chance of living for it.’”

Nero Wolfe to his adopted daughter for being reckless and romantic not practical in fighting for liberty in Rex Stout The Black Mountain

“The London School of Economics would sponsor mock trials to aid the London hospitals, and Chesterton was invited to participate in a number of these, which always drew a large crowd (and thereby donations). On one occasion, he was pitted against several artists, charging them with constantly changing their standards so that a bewildered public knew not what to admire. Art was represented by Sir William Rothenstein, Eric Gill, and Sir Reginald Blomfield.... Blomfield, a famous architect, after hearing Chesterton’s opening argument, ‘deserted his colleagues and turned King’s Evidence.’”

Dale Ahlquist in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 28 #6 (July/August 2025)

“Be proficient in your field as well as in harmony among fellow men.”

Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts