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The Barbarian hopes — and that is the very mark of him — that he can have his cake and eat it too. He will consume what civilisation has slowly produced after generations of selection and effort but he will not be at pains to replace such goods nor indeed has he a comprehension of the virtue that has brought them into being. Discipline seems to him irrational, on which account he is for ever marvelling that civilisation should have offended him with priests and soldiers.

— Hilaire Belloc This and That and the Other (1912)

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More quotes by Hilaire Belloc

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

The Path to Rome (1902)

From quiet homes and first beginning,
Out to the undiscovered ends,
There's nothing worth the wear of winning,
But laughter and the love of friends.

Verses (1910)

Then he added, as men will who are of infinite imagination and crammed with desires, 'My wants are few.'

The Four Men: A Farrago (1911)

Even where the Faith is preserved men pursue wealth and power inordinately. Where the Faith is lost they pursue nothing else.

Survivals and New Arrivals: The Old and New Enemies of the Catholic Church (1929)

All teaching is dogmatic. Dogma, indeed, means only "a thing taught," and teaching not dogmatic would cease to be teaching and would become discussion and doubt.

Survivals and New Arrivals: The Old and New Enemies of the Catholic Church (1929)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Hilaire Belloc (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.