G. K. Chesterton on talking

‘My country, right or wrong’ is a thing that no patriot would think of saying, except in a desperate case. It is like saying, ‘My mother, drunk or sober’.

The first two facts which a healthy boy or girl feels about sex are these: first that it is beautiful and then that it is dangerous.

The Declaration of Independence dogmatically bases all rights on the fact that God created all men equal; and it is right; for if they were not created equal, they were certainly evolved unequal. There is no basis for democracy except in a dogma about the divine origin of man.

A great many of those who ‘debunk’ traditional…values have in the background values of their own which they believe to be immune from the debunking process.

C. S. Lewis1898–1963The Abolition of Man

• Debate

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

Mark Twain1835–1910

If A is a success in life, than A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.

Albert Einstein1879–1955

• Success