“Il y a des folies qui se prennent comme les maladies contagieuses.”
La Rochefoucauld Maximes [Réflexions morales #300]
“Our image of ourselves as a people was lifted up into heroism by our honourable and solitary defiance of Hitler in 1940, and we liked to see ourselves as the inheritors of Henry V and the imitators of the Greeks and Romans. Of course, these ideas had been quietly subverted for years by the Left, and were secretly despised by a small but influential part of the educated middle class. George Orwell had rightly pointed out in the early months of the war that Britain was unique in having an intelligentsia that despised patriotism. That current in national thought had been suppressed by many things: Russia's entry into the war had allowed even the extreme Left to appear patriotic; the discovery of the extermination camps had transformed a defensive ‘imperialist’ war into a Just War, if only with hindsight; and the powerful myth that the Tories had all been appeasers, whilst the Left had been keen to fight the Nazis (though largely false), had allowed the intellectuals to claim the war as their own. The Suez catastrophe and humiliation, imperial withdrawal from Asia and Africa, and the simple passage of time eventually permitted open mockery of the war years to emerge, round about the time of Churchill's death.”
Peter Hitchens The Abolition of Britain [from my “revolt of the elites” file].
“My favorite reprobate, Jerry Lee Lewis, was so wonderfully gifted that no one has ever been able to produce anything more than plastic mechanical imitations of his music. They reconstruct the bones, but there is no life. Ranked among the five most original and influential pianists of the last century, he had no piano lessons and could not read music. When asked, he would drawl, ‘It was God who gave me my talent. I don’t question God. He can cut my water off anytime.’ The water flowed for more than 70 years. On his 80th birthday he played before a packed house at the London Palladium. Anyone who doesn’t know that Jerry Lee Lewis is an original musical genius has never gotten acquainted with his work. He died at 87 professing his faith in ‘the unlimited grace of Almighty God.’ With a nod to Oscar Wilde, Our Lord calls great saints and great sinners. Respectable folk can be Episcopalians.”
Brent Forrest 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.
“[W]e are learning to do a great many clever things. Unless we are much mistaken the next great task will be to learn not to do them.”
G.K. Chesterton quoted in “News With Views” “compiled by Mark Pilon” in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 28 #6 (July/August 2025) [the specific context is using CRISPR to bring back extinct animals].
“The gods do not protect fools. Fools are protected by more capable fools.”
Larry Niven Ringworld [it also turned up in “Random Foolish Quotations” in Gilbert Magazine Vol. 7 # 7 (6/04)]
“This Spring, Minnesota Representative Pam Altendorf posted a video on X showing another display at the State Capitol, a plaque with the following message. ‘The Democratic Coalition of Satan Worshippers thanks Gov. Tim Walz for not standing in the way of spreading Satanism at the State Capitol Building. Satan has a special place for you.’ Indeed. GKC: ‘It has always been a definite mark of diabolism that its language was splendid and pure. For the heart of all evil religion is fear. And the sacrament of fear is flattery. For this reason the old pagans called the Furies the Gracious Ones. For this reason many modern peasants called their goblins good people because they believe that they are bad people. It is the common-sense of all diabolism that if you worship Satan you worship him as God.’”
“News With Views” “compiled by Mark Pilon” in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 28 #6 (July/August 2025) [and obviously GKC is Chesterton]
In my latest Loonie Politics column I identify a variety of self-defeating mental habits on display over the current Middle Eastern war that prevent decadent civilizations from prevailing in long conflicts.