“We should always endeavor to wonder at the permanent thing, not at the mere exception. We should be startled by the sun, and not by the eclipse. We should wonder less at the earthquake, and wonder more at the earth.”
G.K. Chesterton in Illustrated London News Oct. 21, 1905, quoted in Gilbert The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 25 #2 (Nov.-Dec. 2021)
“In the name of commonsense let it be remembered that Shakespeare lived before the time when unsuccessful poets thought it poetical to be decadent and unsuccessful soldiers thought it military to be silent. Men like Sidney and Raleigh and Essex could have fought as well as Macbeth and could have ranted as well as Macbeth. Why should Shakespeare shrink from making a great general talk poetry when half the great generals of his time actually wrote great poetry?”
“The Macbeths,” in G.K. Chesterton Brave New Family
“I have very little doubt myself that, somehow or other, an inspiring and compelling creed will return to our country, because religion is really a need, like fires in winter: where there is no vision, the people perish, and perish of cold. The nation that has no gods at all not only dies, but what is more, is bored to death. But if ever a faith is firmly founded again, it will be at least interesting to notice those few things that have bridged the gulf, that stood firm when faith was lost, and were still standing when it was found again. Of these really interesting things one, in all probability, will be the English celebration of Christmas.”
G.K. Chesterton in Illustrated London News, January 9, 1909, quoted in “GKC on Scripture – Conducted by Peter Floriani” “Proverbs Part 2” in Gilbert: The Magazine of the G.K. Chesterton Society Vol. 25 #3 (Jan.-Feb. 2022)
“The world owes God to the Jews”
G.K. Chesterton, cited as header quotation without further attribution in “An Orthodox Rabbi Looks at the ChesterBelloc” by Rabbi Mayer Schiller in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 25 #6 (July/August 2022)
“If the judge himself had owned both the Brownlee farm and Hell, he would have rented out the Brownlee place and lived in Hell.”
“Fate’s Purse” in Russell Kirk Ancestral Shadows
In my latest Epoch Times column I contemplate the painfully familiar task of finding comfort at Christmastime despite everything.
“Without justice, what is the state but a great band of robbers?”
St. Augustine, quoted by Fr. Raymond J. de Souza in National Post April 29, 2023
“The Satanic Temple is celebrating 10 years of existence with its SatanCon convention in Boston this weekend, but it's not what you probably think. The organization is as much a theater of American satire as it is a place for believers. The temple, not be confused with the Satanic Church, does not formally deify Satan as the personification of evil, but rather it sees him as a literary character, a necessary rebel, while mocking traditional religion and calling out government’s embrace of institutions like the Catholic Church, co-founder Malcolm Jarry said. ‘They believe in a literary representation of Satan,’ Jarry said of the temple’s estimated 700,000 members around the world. ‘It’s a heroic figure who fights against tyrannical authority and for humanity, even if it’s a losing battle.’... The weekend convention at the Boston Marriott Copley Place is sold out, temple organizers say, boasting that it will be the largest satanic gathering in history. The convention, which is scheduled to include the temple's rituals, a marketplace and a wedding chapel, also caps a successful 10 years for the organization, symbolically based in a Victorian house in Salem, Massachusetts, Jarry said.... He described the typical temple member as ‘anyone who is nonconforming’ and those who are ‘marginalized people.’ These satanists support women's shelters, highway cleanup and addiction recovery centers, he said. A big issue for the temple is abortion rights. It recently launched a telehealth clinic in New Mexico that it says provides abortion medication via mail.”
NBC April 25, 2023