“For Christmas is, as a matter of fact, the standing example of the proposition which I have lately been maintaining; I mean the proposition that without the superhuman we are not human.”
G.K. Chesterton debating newspaper editor Robert Blatchford in December 2003, quoted by Sean P. Dailey in “Tremendous Trifles” in Gilbert! magazine Vol. 7 #3 (December 2003)
“Social questions are the vital questions of today; they take the place of religion.”
Beatrice Webb in her diary in 1884, quoted in Gertrude Himmelfarb The De-moralization of Society
“The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.”
Archilochus, a 7th century BC Greek poet, quoted by Paul P. Streeton in Gerald M. Meier and Dudley Seers Pioneers in Development
“Those who maintain that, provided he is good, a man is happy on the rack or surrounded by great disasters, is talking nonsense, whether intentionally or not.”
Aristotle, Ethics
“We are now getting to the point at which different beliefs about the universe lead to different behaviour. And it would seem, at first sight, very sensible to stop before we got there, and just carry on with those parts of morality that all sensible people agree about. But can we?”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
“How is it that a lame man does not annoy us while a lame mind does? Because a lame man recognizes that we are walking straight, while a lame mind says that it is we who are limping. But for that we should feel sorry rather than angry.”
Blaise Pascal Pensées
“Imagination decides everything: it creates beauty, justice and happiness, which is the world’s supreme good.”
Blaise Pascal Pensées
“Descartes once joked about common sense that it must be universal, because he had yet to meet anyone who didn’t claim to have it.”
Michael Potemra in National Review Jan. 27, 2003 (I believe he was referring to the opening line of Discours de la Méthode: “Le bon sens est la chose du monde la mieux partagée: car chacun pense en être si bien pourvu que ceux même qui sont les plus difficiles à contenter en toute autre chose n’ont point coutume d’en désirer plus qu’ils en ont.”)