“With G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc and Maurice Baring, I never differed—except in opinion.”

John Buchan, quoted by Roger Kimball, in The New Criterion September 2003

Rasselas reflects on the difference between a beast and man. “’I am hungry and thirsty like him, but when thirst and hunger cease I am not at rest; I am, like him, pained with want, but am not, like him, satisfied with fulness. The intermediate hours are long and gloomy; I long again to be hungry that I may again quicken my attention.’”

Samuel Johnson The History of Rasselas

Re kids’ preference for bland junk food “It is a situation which I classify (along with most other aspects of domestic life) as desperate but not serious.”

Robert Capon The Supper of the Lamb

In my latest National Post column I say if the press take a “UFO expert” seriously we contribute to a general atmosphere of idiocy in public discussion.

“Happiness is a hard master – particularly other people’s happiness. A much harder master, if one isn’t conditioned to accept it unquestioningly, than truth.”

Mustapha Mond in Aldous Huxley Brave New World

“‘How was I,’ I asked innocently. ‘Good?’ ‘A most remarkable performance, Minister, if I may say so,’ he answered with studied ambiguity.”

Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey (after a interview in which, in fact, by announcing a policy Hacker had totally checkmated Sir Humphrey) in Yes Minister Vol. I

“On ne devrait s’étonner que de pouvoir encore s’étonner.” ("The only thing that should astonish us is that we can still be astonished.")

La Rochefoucauld “Réflexions morales #384” in Maximes