“It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.”
Ham Gamgee quoted by his son Sam in J.R.R. Tolkien The Two Towers
“‘It is wrong to proselytize among people who have a religious faith,’ says [UofT professor emeritus of comparative religion, William] Oxtoby. ‘No one has the moral right to tell someone they can’t find salvation without Christianity.’”
Maclean’s January 20, 2003 [And approvingly, of course, about an upsurge in violence against Christian missionaries, proving once again Ronald Knox’s jibe that studying comparative religion is the best way to become comparatively religious]
“These folks didn’t become household names – or, at the very least, household what’s-his-names?…”
Scott Feschuk in National Post February 16, 1999 [specifically re various Canadian media talking heads]
In my latest Loonie Politics column I say much of the left was caught offside on Hamas because ideas have consequences and they have embraced ones that lead to terrible places.
“‘Happiness is a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.’ Nathaniel Hawthorne American writer (1804-64)”
“Nathaniel Hawthorne American writer (1804-64)” quoted as “Thought du jour” in “Social Studies” in Globe & Mail February 6, 2013
“The Reformation was no more the work of one man than any such upheaval can ever be; but without Luther there would still have been no Reformation.”
Geoffrey Elton Reformation Europe 1517-1559
“There are indeed a large number of young people who sincerely think that their spirit will be the spirit of the future. That is why they are all so depressed.”
G.K. Chesterton in G.K.’s Weekly July 21, 1928 quoted in “Chesterton for Today” in Gilbert The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 25 #6 (July/August 2022)
“Quite honestly, I can’t imagine how anyone can say: ‘I’m weak,’ and then remain so. After all, if you know it, why not fight against it, why not try to train your character? The answer was: ‘Because it’s so much easier not to!’ This reply rather discouraged me. Easy? Does that mean that a lazy, deceitful life is an easy life? Oh, no, that can’t be true, it mustn’t be true, people can so easily be tempted by slackness... and by money.”
The diary entry for July 6, 1944 in The Diary of Anne Frank [prompted by a conversation with Peter Van Daan who said he thought he might later become a criminal or a gambler]