210 Quotes by Hilaire Belloc

There is thus a very great deal in common between the enthusiasm with which Mohammed’s teaching attacked the priesthood, the Mass and the sacraments, and the enthusiasm with which Calvinism, the central motive force of the Reformation, did the same.

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

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

For one’s native place is the shell of one’s soul, and one’s church is the kernel of that nut.

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.’

Of old when folk lay sick and sorely tried The doctors gave them physic, and they died. But here’s a happier age: for now we know Both how to make men sick and keep them so.

There is and always has been the Church, and various heresies proceeding from a rejection of some of the Church’s doctrines by men who still desire to retain the rest of her teaching and morals.

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

Matilda told such dreadful lies, It made one gasp and stretch one’s eyes Her aunt, who, from her earliest youth, Had kept a strict regard for truth, Attempted to believe Matilda The effort very nearly killed her.