Quotes from Hilaire Belloc

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

Catholic Church is an institution I am bound to hold divine — but for unbelievers a proof of its divinity might be found in the fact that no merely human institution conducted with such knavish imbecility would have lasted a fortnight.

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

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

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

When I am dead, I hope it may be said: 'His sins were scarlet, but his books were read.'

This our European structure, built upon the noble foundations of classical antiquity, was formed through, exists by, is consonant to, and will stand only in the mold of, the Catholic Church. Europe will return to the Faith, or she will perish. The Faith is Europe. And Europe is the Faith.

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.

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

Do not, I beseech you, be troubled about the increase of forces already in dissolution. You have mistaken the hour of the night; it is already morning.

A Catholic culture does not mean or imply universality. A nation or a whole civilization is of the Catholic culture not when it is entirely composed of strong believers minutely practicing their religion, nor even whit it boasts a majority of such, but when it presents a determining number of units-family institutions, individuals, inspired by and tenacious of the Catholic spirit.

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