“It is psychologically impossible, when we hear real scientific statistics, not to think that they mean something. Generally they mean nothing. Sometimes they mean something that isn’t true.”
G.K. Chesterton in Illustrated London News Nov. 18, 1905, quoted in “Statistics” in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 28 #6 (July/August 2025)
In my bonus contribution to the National Post “What we’ve lost” series I try to retrieve the bar of soap once used to wash out the mouths of people who swore in the wrong place or at the wrong time, and the self-control that went with it.
“The unsigned articles appearing in this magazine sometimes represent the views of the editor – and frequently of no one else.”
“FRANK E. MASLAND, JR.” quoted in “Other Suspects – V” in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 28 #6 (July/August 2025)
“We have seen the end of the age of Reason; and that we live in the age of Suggestion. Perhaps for the first time, the degradation of Man has been openly declared; in a theory that he can be persuaded without being convinced.”
G.K. Chesterton in G.K.’s Weekly Nov. 1, 1934, quoted in “Chesterton for Today” in Gilbert: the Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 28 #2 (Nov./Dec. 2024)
“It is very perilous indeed that millions of people should have the law laid down for them by journalists who write as if they knew everything, and seem to know nothing about anything.”
G.K. Chesterton in G.K.’s Weekly April 14, 1935, quoted in “Chesterton for Today” in Gilbert: the Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 28 #3 (Jan./Feb. 2025)
In my latest Epoch Times column I ask, with specific reference to the Canada Health Act, why mental paralysis is considered an elevated form of patriotism in this country.
In my latest Loonie Politics column I deplore the modern habit of judging budgets by how much boodle we personally pocketed rather than how well or poorly it safeguarded the national finances, as if our own narrow self-interest were self-evidently the national interest.
“Before you believe what the press says, find out who pays for the ink.”
Emailed by a friend without attribution