Hilaire Belloc quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Hilaire Belloc

Hilaire Belloc Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Hilaire Belloc on Wise Famous Quotes.

I'm tired of love; I'm still more tired of rhyme; but money gives me pleasure all the time.

There are few greater temptations on earth than to stay permanently at Oxford in meditation, and to read all the books in the Bodlean.

An institute run with such knavish imbecility that if it were not the work of God it would not last a fortnight.

Pale Ebenezer thought it wrong to fight,
But Roaring Bill (who killed him) thought it right.

There is always something more to be said, and it is always so difficult to turn up the splice neatly at the edges.

I always like to associate with a lot of priests because it makes me understand anti-clerical things so well.

Loss and possession, death and life are one, There falls no shadow where there shines no sun.

The control of the production of wealth is the control of human life itself.

All men have an instinct for conflict: at least, all healthy men.

Kings live in Palaces, and Pigs in sties, And youth in Expectation. Youth is wise.

Physicians of the utmost fame, Were called at once; but when they came They answered, as they took their fees, 'There is no Cure for this Disease.'

Oh, my friends, be warned by me, That breakfast, dinner, lunch and tea, Are all human frame requires.

[A]lways keep a-hold of Nurse For fear of finding something worse

For every time she shouted "Fire!" They only answered "Little liar!" And therefore when her aunt returned, Matilda, and the house, were burned.

Is there no Latin word for Tea? Upon my soul, if I had known that I would have let the vulgar stuff alone.

Never could an increase of comfort or security be a sufficient good to be bought at the price of liberty.

The prospect of refreshment at the charges of another is an opportunity never to be neglected by men of clear commercial judgment.

The machine does not control the mind of man, though it affects the mind of man; it is the mind of man that can and should control the machine.

Write as the wind blows and command all words like an army!

If we do not restore the Institution of Property we cannot escape restoring the Institution of Slavery; there is no third course.

How slow the shadow creeps: but when 'tis past How fast the shadows fall. How fast! How fast!

When you have lost your inns, drown your empty selves, for you will have lost the last of England.

Every major question in history is a religious question. It has more effect in molding life than nationalism or a common language.

The moment a man talks to his fellows he begins to lie.

It is the best of all trades, to make songs, and the second best to sing them.

When people call this beast to mind, They marvel more and more At such a little tail behind, So large a trunk before.

Of all fatiguing, futile, empty trades, the worst, I suppose, is writing about writing.

The power of the State must be invoked for restoring economic freedom just as it has been invoked for destroying economic freedom.

Statistics are the triumph of the quantitative method, and the quantitative method is the victory of sterility and death.

The choice lies between property on the one hand and slavery, public or private, on the other. There is no third issue.

In soft deluding lies let fools delight. A shadow marks our days, which end in Night.

Remote and ineffectual don.

For one thing, I was no longer alone; a man is never alone with the wind-and the boat made three.

And the men that were boys when I was a boy Shall sit and drink with me.

Just as there is nothing between the admirable omelet and the intolerable, so with autobiography.

The microbe is so very small: You cannot take him out at all.

When they married and gave in marriage
They danced at the County Ball
And some of them kept a carriage
And the flood destroyed them all.

The Llama is a woolly sort of fleecy hairy goat, with an indolent expression and an undulating throat; like an unsuccessful literary man.

The Reformation has been called in a biting epigram "a rising of the rich against the poor."

When you have lost your inns, you may drown your empty selves. For you have lost the heart of England.

Dear Grandmamma, with what we give. We humbly pray that you may live. For many, many happy years: Although you bore us all to tears.

If you can describe clearly without a diagram the proper way of making this or that knot, then you are a master of the English language.

I am writing a book about the Crusades so dull that I can scarcely write it.

The grace of God is courtesy.

He served his god so faithfully and well
That now he sees him face to face in hell.

I am a sundial, and I make a botch
Of what is done much better by a watch.

Of courtesy, it is much less Than courage of heart or holiness, Yet in my walks it seems to me That the Grace of God is in courtesy.

It is sometimes necessary to lie damnably in the interests of the nation.

I forget the name of the place; I forget the name of the girl; but the wine was Chambertin.

If antiquity be the only test of nobility, then cheese is a very noble thing ... The lineage of cheese is demonstrably beyond all record.

I shoot the Hippopotamus with bullets made of platinum, because if I use the leaden one his hide is sure to flatten em.

The Devil, having nothing else to do Went off to tempt my Lady Poltagrue. My Lady, tempted by a private whim, To his extreme annoyance, tempted him.

The gentleman is generous and treats all men as his equals, especially those whom he feels to be inferior in rank and wealth.

Be content to remember that those who can make omelettes properly can do nothing else.

The world is full of double beds And most delightful maidenheads, Which being so, there's no excuse For sodomy or self-abuse.

Before the curse of statistics fell upon mankind we lived a happy, innocent life, full of merriment and go and informed by fairly good judgment.

The Church is a perpetually defeated thing that always outlives her conquerers.

Child! Do not throw this book about; refrain from the unholy pleasure of cutting all the pictures out.

Oh, you should never, never doubt what nobody is sure about.

The sea drives truth into a man like salt.

What followed for two hours was such an adventure as only wretched amateurs would indulge in...

[Heresy is] the dislocation of a complete and self-supporting scheme by the introduction of a novel denial of some essential part therein.

A strong Protectionist, believes
In everything but Heaven.
For entertainment, dines, receives,
Unmarried, 57.

Whatever happens, we have got The Maxim gun, and they have not.

Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine,
There's always laughter and good red wine.
At least I've always found it so.
Benedicamus Domino!

I said to Heart, "How goes it?" Heart replied: "Right as a Ribstone Pippin!" But it lied.

Any subject can be made interesting, and therefore any subject can be made boring.

You are my cat, and I am your human.