"Winston Churchill once described the Balkans as a region that produced more history than it could consume."

Carol Off The Ghosts of Medak Pocket

"I remember that when I was a boy my teacher asked if anybody knew what laissez faire meant. I didn’t realize it was a French phrase. I thought it meant the government was 'lazy' and 'fair.' And it certainly worked well for Hong Kong under British rule."

Martin Lee in CATO Policy Report Vol. XXI, #6 (Nov./Dec. 1999)

"As long as your players know, deep down, that you are trying to make them as good as they can be, then you can use just about anything [for motivation]. Even a disappearing act. Once, in 1978, we were losing to Notre Dame at halftime. Here was my halftime speech: 'Gentlemen, it’s one thing to be beaten. It’s another to be embarrassed.' And I walked out. We won, 28-14."

Bo Schembechler and Mitch Albom BO 

"Le monde récompense plus souvent les apparences du mérite que le mérite même."

Réflexions morales #166 in François de La Rochefoucauld Maximes

"For when once people have begun to believe that prosperity is the reward of virtue their next calamity is obvious. If prosperity is regarded as the reward of virtues, it will be regarded as the symptom of virtue. Men will leave off the heavy task of making good men successful. They will adopt the easier task of making our successful men good."

G.K. Chesterton, “The Book of Job,” in Alberto Manguel, ed., On Lying in Bed and Other Essays by G.K. Chesterton

"Why are expensive cars kept in the drive way and useless junk kept inside the garage?"

One of "Gilbert’s Top Ten Unanswered Questions", in Gilbert! magazine Vol. 4 #7

"’The mystery of life is the plainest part of it."

G.K. Chesterton, quoted by John Peterson in Gilbert Magazine vol. 10 #7 (6-7/07)

"The effect of boredom on a large scale in history is underestimated"

Dean Inge, quoted in Russell Kirk The Conservative Mind