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An Institute Run With Such Knavish Imbecility That If It Were Not The Work Of God It Would Not Last A Fortnight.
-Hilaire Belloc
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An Institute Run With

Hilaire Belloc
...
An Institute Run With Such Knavish Imbecility That If It Were Not The Work Of God It Would Not Last A Fortnight.

Understanding the Quote: "an institute run with such knavish imbecility that if it were not..."

This quote by Hilaire Belloc reflects deeply on the theme of running. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Running, Lasts, Fortnight, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Hilaire Belloc interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Hilaire Belloc

Hilaire Belloc is celebrated for insightful thoughts on running and lasts. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

Views: 9035
Topic
Running
Lasts
Fortnight
More From Hilaire Belloc
The Terror In Which English Capitalists Now Stand Of Organized Proletarian Resistance Gives To The Naturally Protected Craft Organizations The Power To Receive The Wages They Demand. They Act As They Have Been Trained To Act By Capitalist Society, Which Denies The Doctrine Of The Just Price, Which Proclaims Work To Be An Evil And The Goal Of Human Endeavor To Be The Avoidance Of It; Which Puts It Up As An Ideal That Individuals Should Get As Much Money As They Possibly Can Out Of Their Fellows By Any Means In Their Power.
Wisdom
Mean
Organization
The Power Of The State Must Be Invoked For Restoring Economic Freedom Just As It Has Been Invoked For Destroying Economic Freedom.
Economic
Destroying
States
Protest Against Industrial Capitalism From One Aspect Or Another Is Universal: So Was The Protest Against The Condition Of European Religion At The Beginning Of The Sixteenth Century.
Politics
Economy
Century
[heresy Is] The Dislocation Of A Complete And Self-supporting Scheme By The Introduction Of A Novel Denial Of Some Essential Part Therein.
Self
Essentials
Denial
There Is No One Who Has Cooked But Has Discovered That Each Particular Dish Depends For Its Rightness Upon Some Little Point Which He Is Never Told. It Is Not Only So Of Cooking: It Is So Of Splicing A Rope; Of Painting A Surface Of Wood; Of Mixing Mortar; Of Almost Anything You Like To Name Among The Immemorial Human Arts.
Art
Names
Cooking
It Seems To Be Saying Perpetually; 'i Am The End Of The Nineteenth Century; I Am Glad They Built Me Of Iron; Let Me Rust.' ... It Is Like A Passing Fool In A Crowd Of The University, A Buffoon In The Hall; For All The Things In Paris Has Made, It Alone Has Neither Wits Nor Soul.
Engineering
Iron
Paris
That I Grow Sour, Who Only Lack Delight; That I Descend To Sneer, Who Only Grieve: That From My Depth I Should Contemn Your Height; That With My Blame My Mockery You Receive; Huntress And Splendour Of The Woodland Night, Diana Of This World, Do Not Believe.
Believe
Night
Grieving
The Larger Unit Can Borrow More Easily In Proportion Than The Smaller. It Can Especially Tap Bank Credit More Easily And Bank Credit Is, To-day, The Chief Factor In Economic Activity Of All Kinds.
Wisdom
Credit
Politics
It Has Unfortunately Now Become A Habit For So Many Generations, That It Has Almost Passed Into An Instinct Throughout The Jewish Body, To Rely Upon The Weapon Of Secrecy. Secret Societies, A Language Kept As Far As Possible Secret, The Use Of False Names In Order To Hide Secret Movements, Secret Relations Between Various Parts Of The Jewish Body: All These And Other Forms Of Secrecy Have Become The National Method.
Order
Names
Rely Upon
I Have Wandered All My Life, And I Have Also Traveled; The Difference Between The Two Being This, That We Wander For Distraction, But We Travel For Fulfillment.
Life
Travel
Journey
In The Form Of Security And Sufficiency For The Men Who Labor To The Profit Of Others, And In The Form Of Registering And Controlling Them In The Form Of An Organized Public Supervision Of Their Labor, Slavery Is Already Afoot. When Slavery Shall Succeed It Will Succeed Through The Acquiescence Of Those Who Will Be Enslaved, For They Will Prefer Sufficiency And Security With Enslavement, To Freedom, Responsibility, Insecurity And The Threat Of Insufficiency.
Wisdom
Responsibility
Men
Time After Time Mankind Is Driven Against The Rocks Of The Horrid Reality Of A Fallen Creation. And Time After Time Mankind Must Learn The Hard Lessons Of History-the Lessons That For Some Dangerous And Awful Reason We Can't Seem To Keep In Our Collective Memory.
Memories
Reality
Collective Memory
In The Midst Of All These Innumerable Forms Of A Common Protest And Universal Ill-ease There Has Grown Up One Definite Body Of Doctrine Whose Adherents Are Called Communists And Who Desired The Total Subversion Of What Had Been, Hitherto Unquestioned Among Civilized European Men, The General Doctrines Of Property And Individual Freedom.
Wisdom
Men
Doctrine
We Cannot Make Owners By Merely Giving Men Something To Own. And, I Repeat, Whether There Be Sufficient Desire For Property Left Upon Which We Can Work, Only Experience Can Decide.
Wisdom
Men
Giving
The Grace Of God Is Courtesy.
Grace
Courtesy
Grace Of God
Capitalism Had Arisen Through The Misuse And Exaggeration Of Certain Rights, Notably The Right Of Property - The Basis Of Economic Freedom - And The Right Of Contract, Which Is One Of The Main Functions Of Economic Freedom. Therefore, Even Under Capitalism, So Long As The Old Principles Were Remembered It Was Possible To Recall The Principles Whereby Society Had Once Been Sane And Well Ordered.
Rights
Long
Principles
Any Subject Can Be Made Interesting, And Therefore Any Subject Can Be Made Boring.
Interesting
Boring
Made
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.
Lying
Believe
Eye
Pale Ebenezer Thought It Wrong To Fight. But Roaring Bill, Who Killed Him, Thought It Right.
Military
Fighting
Army
Will Not Perhaps The Temporal Power Of Islam Return And With It The Menace Of An Armed Mohammedan World, Which Will Shake Off The Domination Of Europeans - Still Nominally Christian - And Reappear As The Prime Enemy Of Our Civilization? The Future Always Comes As A Surprise, But Political Wisdom Consists In Attempting At Least Some Partial Judgment Of What That Surprise May Be. And For My Part I Cannot But Believe That A Main Unexpected Thing Of The Future Is The Return Of Islam.
Christian
Believe
Civilization
The Propaganda Of Communism Throughout The World, In Organization And Direction Is In The Hands Of Jewish Agents. As For Anyone Who Does Not Know That The Bolshevist Movement In Russia Is Jewish, I Can Only Say That He Must Be A Man Who Is Taken In By The Suppression Of Our Deplorable Press.
Taken
Men
Organization
Oh, You Should Never, Never Doubt What Nobody Is Sure About.
Doubt
Should
Slowly But Certainly The Proletarian, By Every Political Reform Which Secures His Well-being Under New Rules Of Insurance, Of State Control In Education, Of State Medicine And The Rest, Is Developing Into The Slave, Leaving The Rich Man Apart And Free. All Industrial Civilization Is Clearly Moving Towards The Re-establishment Of The Servile State.
Wisdom
Moving
Men
It Is Mind Which Determines The Change Of Society, And It Was Because The Mind At Work Was A Catholic Mind That The Slave Became A Serf And Was On His Way To Becoming A Peasant And A Fully Free Man-a Man Free Economically As Well As Politically. The Whole Spirit Of The Church Was For Small Property, And That Spirit Was Slowly, Instinctively, Working For The Establishment Of Small Property Throughout Christendom.
Men
Catholic
Mind
Write As The Wind Blows And Command All Words Like An Army!
Writing
Army
Blow
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.
Wisdom
Men
Mind
It Is The Best Of All Trades, To Make Songs, And The Second Best To Sing Them.
Song
Singing
Second Best
The Church Is A Perpetually Defeated Thing That Always Outlives Her Conquerers.
Church
Defeated
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.
Assessment
Statistics
Judgment
Whatever Happens, We Have Got The Maxim Gun, And They Have Not.
Gun
Whatever Happens
Maxims
For One Thing, I Was No Longer Alone; A Man Is Never Alone With The Wind-and The Boat Made Three.
Men
Wind
Sailing
The World Is Full Of Double Beds And Most Delightful Maidenheads, Which Being So, There's No Excuse For Sodomy Or Self-abuse.
Self
Abuse
Bed
Had There Been Any Existent Vital And Energetic Institution Left In Society After The Reformation For The Use Of Small Property In Coordinated Form-that Is, In Combination, So That The Average Man's Holding Could Be Put To Useful Purpose In Company With The Holdings Of A Great Number Of Other Men Of His Own Sort, The New Evils Would Not Have Arisen.
Wisdom
Men
Average
But If I Be Asked What Sign We May Look For To Show That The Advance Of The Faith Is At Hand I Would Answer By A Word The Modern World Has Forgotten: Persecution. When That Shall Once More Be At Work It Will Be Morning.
Morning
Hands
Looks
I Always Like To Associate With A Lot Of Priests Because It Makes Me Understand Anti-clerical Things So Well.
Priests
Wells
Associates
To Control The Production Of Wealth Is To Control Human Life Itself. To Refuse Man The Opportunity For The Production Of Wealth Is To Refuse Him The Opportunity For Life; And, In General, The Way In Which The Production Of Wealth Is By Law Permitted Is The Only Way In Which The Citizens Can Legally Exist.
Wisdom
Opportunity
Men
The Rich Arrived In Pairs And Also In Rolls Royces; They Talked Of Their Affairs In Loud And Strident Voices... The Poor Arrived In Fords, Whose Features They Resembled; They Laughed To See So Many Lords And Ladies All Assembled. The People In Between Looked Underdone And Harassed, And Our Of Place And Mean, And Horribly Embarrassed.
Mean
Voice
People
Economic Freedom Is In Our Eyes A Good. It Is Among The Highest Of Temporal Goods Because It Is Necessary To The Highest Life Of Society Through The Dignity Of Man And Through The Multiplicity Of His Action, In Which Multiplicity Is Life. Through Well-divided Property Alone Can The Units Of Society React Upon The State. Through It Alone Can A Public Opinion Flourish. Only Where The Bulk Of The Cells Are Healthy Can The Whole Organism Thrive.
Eye
Men
Cells
Be At The Pains Of Putting Down Every Single Item Of Expenditure Whatsoever Every Day Which Could Possibly Be Twisted Into A Professional Expense And Remember To Lump In All The Doubtfulls.
Pain
Business
Doubt
Wherever The Industrial System Has Reached Its Second Generation It Is Threatened By Two Mortal Perils. The First Is The Demand By An Organized Proletariat For Sustenance Without Relation To The Product Of Its Labor; A Demand Which Threatens The Very Existence Of Profit (on The Necessary Presumption Of Which Capitalism Reposes). The Second, And Immediately Graver Danger Is That Of A Revolt For The Confiscation Of The Means Of Production.
Wisdom
Mean
Two
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.'
Disease
Physicians
Fame
Kings Live In Palaces, And Pigs In Sties, And Youth In Expectation. Youth Is Wise.
Wise
Kings
Pigs
For No One, In Our Long Decline, So Dusty, Spiteful And Divided, Had Quite Such Pleasant Friends As Mine, Or Loved Them Half As Much As I Did.
Long
Half
Spiteful
I Am Writing A Book About The Crusades So Dull That I Can Scarcely Write It.
Book
Writing
Dull
Is There No Latin Word For Tea? Upon My Soul, If I Had Known That I Would Have Let The Vulgar Stuff Alone.
Latin
Soul
Tea
The Worship Of The Nation Has Been Able To Make Men Tolerate Under Its Authority What They Could Never Have Tolerated From Princes: A Submission To Rule, Which, Through Sumptuary Laws On Food And Drink, Through Conscription, Through A Cast-iron System Of Compulsory Instruction For All On State Ordered Lines, And Through A State Examination At The Gate Of Every Profession, Has Almost Killed The Citizen's Power To React Upon That Which Controls Him, And Has Almost Destroyed That Variety Which Is The Mark Of Life.
Wisdom
Men
Law
It Has Been Discovered That With A Dull Urban Population, All Formed Under A Mechanical System Of State Education, A Suggestion Or Command, However Senseless And Unreasoned, Will Be Obeyed If It Be Sufficiently Repeated.
Suggestions
Population
Dull
The Control Of The Production Of Wealth Is The Control Of Human Life Itself.
Liberty
Libertarian
Wealth
Wherever The Catholic Sun Doth Shine, There’s Always Laughter And Good Red Wine. At Least I’ve Always Found It So. Benedicamus Domino!
Laughter
Wine
Shining
... But As A Godless Greed Pursued Its Career From Excess To Excess, It Provoked A Sort Of Twin Hostile Brother, Equally Godless, Born In The Same Atmosphere Of Utter Disregard For The Foundational Virtues Of Humility And Charity. This Hostile Twin Brother Of Capitalism Was Destined To Be Called Communism, And Is Today Setting Out To Murder Its Elder.
Brother
Humility
Careers
But If We Are To Retain Freedom, Then We Can Only Do So By Keeping The Determining Mass Of The Citizens The Possessors Of Property With Personal Control Over It, As Individuals Or As Families. For Property Is The Necessary Condition Of Economic Freedom In The Full Sense Of That Term. He That Has Not Property Is Under Economic Servitude To Him Who Has Property, Whether The Possessor Of It Be Another Individual Or The State.
Wisdom
Citizens
Politics
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.
Love
Life
Friendship
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.
Evil
Temptation
Privacy
All Men Have An Instinct For Conflict: At Least, All Healthy Men.
Men
Healthy
Conflict
When The Mass Of Families In A State Are Without Property, Then Those Who Were Once Citizens Become Virtually Slaves. The More The State Steps In To Enforce Conditions Of Security And Sufficiency; The More It Regulates Wages, Provides Compulsory Insurance, Doctoring, Education, And In General Takes Over The Lives Of The Wage-earners, For The Benefit Of The Companies And Men Employing The Wage-earners, The More Is This Condition Of Semi-slavery Accentuated.
Wisdom
Men
Steps
Such Are The Mass Of The Supporters Of Either Party. They Derive Their Political Opinions Originally From Some Family Tradition Or Some Fanciful Preference, But They Back Them With All The Passion Of Sportsmen. In A Vague Subconscious Way They Know It Is A Game, But They Happen To Enjoy Playing The Game.
Party
Passion
Political Opinions
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.
Men
Doctors
Sick
Never Could An Increase Of Comfort Or Security Be A Sufficient Good To Be Bought At The Price Of Liberty.
Liberty
Comfort
Increase
The Society Of Christendom And Especially Of Western Christendom Up To The Explosion, Which We Call The Reformation, Had Been A Society Of Owners: A Proprietarial Society. It Was One In Which There Remained Strong Bonds Between One Class And Another, And In Which There Was A Hierarchy Of Superior And Inferior, But Not, In The Main, A Distinction Between A Restricted Body Of Possessors And A Main Body Of Destitute At The Mercy Of The Possessors, Such As Our Society Has Become.
Wisdom
Strong
Class
You Are My Cat, And I Am Your Human.
Cat
Humans
I Am A Sundial, And I Make A Botch Of What Is Done Much Better By A Watch.
Funny
Time
Watches
Just As There Is Nothing Between The Admirable Omelet And The Intolerable, So With Autobiography.
Biographies
Admirable
Autobiography
I Said To Heart, "how Goes It?" Heart Replied: "right As A Ribstone Pippin!" But It Lied.
Heart
Lied
Said
The Choice Lies Between Property On The One Hand And Slavery, Public Or Private, On The Other. There Is No Third Issue.
Lying
Hands
Issues
Torture Will Give A Dozen Pence Or More To Keep A Drab From Bawling At His Door. The Public Taste Is Quite A Different Thing Torture Is Positively Paid To Sing.
Doors
Giving
Different
Communism Worked Honestly By Officials Devoid Of Human Frailties And Devoted To Nothing But The Good Of Its Slaves, Would Have Certain Manifest Material Advantages As Compared With A Proletarian Wage-system Where Millions Live In Semi-starvation, And Many Millions More In Permanent Dread Thereof. But Even If It Were Administered Thus Communism Would Only Produce Its Benefits Through Imposing Slavery.
Wisdom
Benefits
Slavery
Here Richly, With Ridiculous Display, The Politician's Corpse Was Laid Away. While All Of His Acquaintance Sneered And Slanged I Wept: For I Had Longed To See Him Hanged.
Ridiculous
Politician
Acquaintance
The Old Freedom Sufficiently Survives In The Mind Of The Wage Earner To Give Him The Illusion That, While Accepting Insurance And Maintenance From The Capitalist State, He Can Still Be A Full Citizen. He Thinks He Can Have His Cake And Eat It Too. He Is Mistaken. The Great Capitalists Who Procured These Regulations From The Politicians Knew What They Were At. They Were Catching Their Proletariat In A Net, And Now They Hold It Fast.
Wisdom
Thinking
Cake
Great Artistic Talent In Any Direction... Is Hardly Inherent To The Man. It Comes And Goes; It Is Often Possessed Only For A Short Phase In His Life; It Hardly Ever Colors His Character As A Whole And Has Nothing To Do With The Moral And Intellectual Stuff Of The Mind And Soul. Many Great Artists, Perhaps Most Great Artists, Have Been Poor Fellows Indeed, Whom To Know Was To Despise.
Character
Artist
Men
I'm Tired Of Love; I'm Still More Tired Of Rhyme; But Money Gives Me Pleasure All The Time.
Love
Money
Tired
In Soft Deluding Lies Let Fools Delight. A Shadow Marks Our Days, Which End In Night.
Lying
Night
Shadow
When One Remembers How The Catholic Church Has Been Governed, And By Whom, One Realizes That It Must Have Been Divinely Inspired To Have Survived At All.
Catholic
Church
Remember
Oh, My Friends, Be Warned By Me, That Breakfast, Dinner, Lunch And Tea, Are All Human Frame Requires.
Lunch
Tea
Breakfast
Every Major Question In History Is A Religious Question. It Has More Effect In Molding Life Than Nationalism Or A Common Language.
Religious
Common
Language
The Restoration Of Property Would Be A Complicated, Arduous And Presumably A Lengthy Business; The Transformation Of A Capitalist Society Into A Communist One Needs Nothing But The Extension Of Existing Conditions.
Would Be
Needs
Restoration
I Am A Catholic. As Far As Possible, I Go To Mass Every Day. This Is A Rosary. As Far As Possible, I Kneel Down And Tell These Beads Every Day. If You Reject Me On Account Of My Religion, I Shall Thank God That He Has Spared Me The Indignity Of Being Your Representative.
Catholic
Thank God
Rosary
The Whole Art Of The Political Speech Is To Put 'nothing' Into It. It Is Much More Difficult Than It Sounds.
Art
Political
Sound
An Institute Run With Such Knavish Imbecility That If It Were Not The Work Of God It Would Not Last A Fortnight.
Running
Lasts
Fortnight
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.
Grandma
Years
Giving
The Reformation Has Been Called In A Biting Epigram "a Rising Of The Rich Against The Poor."
Wisdom
Rising
Politics
The Sea Drives Truth Into A Man Like Salt.
Men
Sea
Sailing
It Is Sometimes Necessary To Lie Damnably In The Interests Of The Nation.
Lying
Sometimes
Interest
The Microbe Is So Very Small You Cannot Make Him Out At All, But Many Sanguine People Hope To See Him Through A Microscope.
Science
Scientist
Sanguine
[a]lways Keep A-hold Of Nurse For Fear Of Finding Something Worse
Nurse
Findings
The Gentleman Is Generous And Treats All Men As His Equals, Especially Those Whom He Feels To Be Inferior In Rank And Wealth.
Men
Gentleman
Language
If We Are To Be Happy, Decent And Secure Of Our Souls: Drink Some Kind Of Fermented Liquor With One's Food; Go On The Water From Time To Time; Dance On Occasions, And Sing In A Chorus.
Water
Soul
Goes On
Let Us Then Repeat And Firmly Fix This Main Point: The Evil, The Root Evil, Of That To Which The Term Capitalism Has Come To Be Applied, Is Neither Its Functioning For Profit Nor Its Dependence Upon Legally Protected Private Property; But The Presence Of A Proletariat, That Is Of Men Possessing Political Freedom, But Dispossessed Of Economic Freedom, And Existing In Such Large Numbers In Any Community As To Determine The Tone Of All That Community.
Wisdom
Men
Roots
For Every Time She Shouted "fire!" They Only Answered "little Liar!" And Therefore When Her Aunt Returned, Matilda, And The House, Were Burned.
Time
Liars
Aunt
Of All Fatiguing, Futile, Empty Trades, The Worst, I Suppose, Is Writing About Writing.
Writing
Empty
Worst
Take The Particular Trick Of False Names. It Seems To Us Particularly Odious. We Think When We Show Our Contempt For Those Who Use This Subterfuge That We Are Giving Them No More Than They Deserve. It Is A Meanness Which We Associate With Criminals And Vagabonds; A Piece Of Crawling And Sneaking...men Whose Race Is Universally Known, Will Unblushingly Adopt A False Name As A Mask, And After A Year Or Two Pretend To Treat It As An Insult If Their Original And True Name Be Used In Its Place.
Men
Thinking
Race
And The Men That Were Boys When I Was A Boy Shall Sit And Drink With Me.
Boys
Men
Drink
Even If The Wealth And Power Be Well Distributed Throughout A Community, Its Members Will Not Be Happy Unless They Are Inwardly So, And Obviously Where The Distribution Is Bad, Where The Few Have A Vast Superfluity And The Many Are Consumed By Anxiety Or Want, Or Where A Few Controllers Can Exercise Their Will Over The Many, Society Has Failed, Even Though Its Total Wealth And Power Be Increased.
Wisdom
Exercise
Community
Since It Is To The Advantage Of The Wage-payer To Pay As Little As Possible, Even Well-paid Labor Will Have No More Than What Is Regarded In A Particular Society As The Reasonable Level Of Subsistence. The Lower Ranks Of Labor Will Commonly Have Less, And If Public Relief Were Afforded Even Up To The Wage-level Of The Lowest Ranks Of Labor, That Relief Would Compete In The Labor Market; Check Or Dry Up The Supply Of Wage-labor. It Would Tend To Render The Performance Of Work By The Wage-earner Redundant.
Dry Up
Relief
Levels
These Are The Advantages Of Travel, That One Meets So Many Men Whom One Would Otherwise Never Meet, And That One Feeds As It Were Upon The Complexity Of Mankind
Men
Advantage
Mankind
The Term "socialism" Becomes A Common Label For The Various Theories Of Attack Upon The Principle Of Property, The Various Policies Of Communal Control At The Expense Of The Family And Individual Freedom.
Wisdom
Principles
Labels
We Wander For Distraction, But We Travel For Fulfillment.
Travel
Carpe Diem
Journey
For No One, In Our Long Decline,so Dusty, Spiteful And Divided,had Quite Such Pleasant Friends As Mine,or Loved Them Half As Much As I Did. [stanza 3]the Library Was Most Inviting:the Books Upon The Crowded Shelveswere Mainly Of Our Private Writing:we Kept A School And Taught Ourselves. [stanza 15]from Quiet Homes And First Beginning,out To The Undiscovered Ends,theres Nothing Worth The Wear Of Winning,but Laughter And The Love Of Friends. [stanza 22]you Do Retain The Song We Set,and How It Rises, Trips And Scans?you Keep The Sacred Memory Yet,republicans? Republicans?[stanza 36]
Love
Song
Laughter
The Tender Evenlode That Makes Her Meadows Hush To Hear The Sound Of Waters Mingling In The Brakes, And Binds My Heart To English Ground. A Lovely River, All Alone, She Lingers In The Hills And Holds A Hundred Little Towns Of Stone, Forgotten In The Western Wolds.
Heart
Rivers
Water
I Forget The Name Of The Place; I Forget The Name Of The Girl; But The Wine Was Chambertin.
Girl
Food
Wine
I Shoot The Hippopotamus With Bullets Made Of Platinum, Because If I Use The Leaden One His Hide Is Sure To Flatten Em.
Animal
Ems
Use
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.
Writing
Way
Language
When Friendship Disappears Then There Is A Space Left Open To That Awful Loneliness Of The Outside World Which Is Like The Cold Space Between The Planets. It Is An Air In Which Men Perish Utterly.
Loneliness
Being Alone
Men
Under The Old Social Philosophy Which Had Governed The Middle Ages, Temporal, And Therefore All Economic, Activities Were Referred To An Eternal Standard. The Production Of Wealth, It Distribution And Exchange Were Regulated With A View To Securing The Christian Life Of Christian Men. In Two Points Especially Was This Felt: First In Securing The Independence Of The Family, Which Can Only Be Done By The Wide Distribution Of Property, In Others Words The Prevention Of The Growth Of A Proletariat; Secondly, In The Close Connection Between Wealth And Public Function.
Christian
Philosophy
Men
But Scientists, Who Ought To Know Assure Us That It Must Be So. Oh, Let Us Never, Never Doubt What Nobody Is Sure About.
Humorous
Doubt
Scientist
Money Gives Me Pleasure All The Time.
Giving
Silly Love
Funny Valentine
It Has Long Been Recognized By Public Men Of All Kinds. . . That Statistics Come Under The Head Of Lying, And That No Lie Is So False Or Inconclusive As That Which Is Based On Statistics.
Funny
Lying
Humorous
Property, As A General Social Institution, Well-divided Property, Having Disappeared And Capitalism Having Taken Its Place, You Cannot Reverse The Process Without Acting Against Natural Economic Tendencies.
Taken
Acting
Economic
In The Same Way The Eminence Attaching To The Mere Possession Of Great Wealth Disappoints Us Nine Times Out Of Ten, Especially If The Wealth Has Been Accumulated Rapidly. For Great Wealth Is Accumulated Rapidly By Cunning Or Chance, Or A Mixture Of The Two. Cunning Has Nothing To Do With High Qualities; It Is Rather A Presumption Against Them; While Chance Has Nothing To Do With Them Either. Therefore It Is That Men Are Always Complaining After Meeting So-and-so, That He Seemed To Be Astonishingly Stupid, Though He Made A Million In Ten Years And Started As A Pauper.
Stupid
Men
Years
Consider In What Way The Industrial System Developed Upon Capitalist Lines. Why Were A Few Rich Men Put With Such Ease Into Possession Of The New Methods? Why Was It Normal And Natural In Their Eyes And In That Of Contemporary Society That Those Who Produced The New Wealth With The New Machinery Should Be Proletarian And Dispossessed?
Eye
Men
Ease
But Though Usury Is In Itself Immoral, And Justly Condemned By Every Ethical Code, Its Chief And Worst Defect In The Particular Case We Are Now Examining, The Growth Of Capitalism And Its Increasing Proletariat, Is The Centralization Of Irresponsible Control Over The Lives Of Men: The Putting Power Over The Proletariat Into The Hands Of A Few Who Can Direct The Loans Of Currency And Credit Without Which That Proletariat Could Not Be Fed And Clothed And Maintained In Work.
Wisdom
Men
Hands
When People Call This Beast To Mind, They Marvel More And More At Such A Little Tail Behind, So Large A Trunk Before.
People
Mind
Tails
The 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.
Catholic
Church
Divinity
If Any Man Gives You A Wine You Can't Bear, Don't Say It Is Beastly... But Don't Say You Like It. You Are Endangering Your Soul And The Use Of Wine As Well... Seek Out Some Other Wine Good To Your Taste.
Food
Wine
Men
Under The Old Philosophy Which Had Governed The High Middle Ages Things Had Been Everywhere Towards A Condition Of Society In Which Property Was Well Distributed Throughout The Community, And Thus The Family Rendered Independent.
Philosophy
Independent
Community
Child! Do Not Throw This Book About Refrain From The Unholy Pleasure Of Cutting All The Pictures Out! Preserve It As Your Chiefest Treasure.
Children
Book
Cutting
One Man In One Mood Will Attack Industrial Capitalism For Its Destruction Of Beauty; Another For Its Incompetence; Another For The Vileness Of The Men Who Chiefly Prosper Under It; Another For Its Mere Confusion And Noise; Another For Its False Values; It Was Until Recently Most Fiercely Attacked For Its Impoverishment Of The Workers, Its Margin Of Unemployment And The Rest - Indeed So Fiercely That It Was Compelled To Seek Palliatives For The Evil. With A Mass Of Men It Was Attacked From A Vague But Strong Sense Of Injustice; It Allowed A Few Rich To Exploit Mankind.
Strong
Men
Evil
Put You Hand Before Your Eyes And Remember, You That Have Walked, The Places From Which You Have Walked Away, And The Wilderness Into Which You Manfully Turned The Steps Of Your Abandonment ... It Is Your Business To Leave All That You Have Know Altogether Behind You, And No Man Has Eyes At The Back Of His Head - Go Forward.
Eye
Journey
Men
How On Earth Could That Be Done? If You Try To Laugh And Say 'no' At The Same Time, It Sounds Like Neighing - Yet People Are Perpetually Doing It In Novels. If They Did It In Real Life They Would Be Locked Up.
Real
Writing
People
Ownership Is Not A General Feature Of Our Society, Determining Its Character. On The Contrary, Dependence On A Precarious Wage At The Will Of Others Is The General Feature Of Our Society.
Character
Our Society
Ownership
The Moment A Man Talks To His Fellows He Begins To Lie.
Lying
Men
Moments
There Are Few Greater Temptations On Earth Than To Stay Permanently At Oxford In Meditation, And To Read All The Books In The Bodlean.
Book
Oxford
Meditation
Political Freedom Without Economic Freedom Is Almost Worthless, And It Is Because The Modern Proletariat Has The One Kind Of Freedom Without The Other That Its Rebellion Is Now Threatening The Very Structure Of The Modern World.
Wisdom
Political
World
If Antiquity Be The Only Test Of Nobility, Then Cheese Is A Very Noble Thing ... The Lineage Of Cheese Is Demonstrably Beyond All Record.
Food
Cooking
Noble
The Larger The Unit Of Capital Present, The Easier The Transaction Called Emission Of Credit. Centralized Lending Of This Kind (which Is Today Universal) Actively Promotes The Absorption Of The Small Man By The Great, The Reduction Of Small Property Owners To A Proletarian Condition.
Wisdom
Men
Credit
The Accursed Power Which Stands On Privilege( And Goes With Women, Champagne And Bridge) Broke - And Democracy Resumed Her Reign ( Which Goes With Bridge And Women And Champagne.
Bridges
Democracy
Reign
If We Do Not Restore The Institution Of Property We Cannot Escape Restoring The Institution Of Slavery; There Is No Third Course.
Slavery
Institutions
Thirds
I Put My Pencil Upon The Paper, Doubtfully, And Drew Little Lines, Considering My Theme. But I Would Not Long Hesitate In This Manner, For I Knew That All Creation Must Be Chaos First, And Then Gestures In The Void Before It Can Cast Out The Completed Thing.
Long
Paper
Lines
Statistics Are The Triumph Of The Quantitative Method, And The Quantitative Method Is The Victory Of Sterility And Death.
Science
Objectivity
Victory
Be Content To Remember That Those Who Can Make Omelettes Properly Can Do Nothing Else.
Food
Cooking
Remember
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.
Courage
Heart
Grace
The Very Large Units Of Production And Exchange Have Access To Credit On A Large Scale, Sometimes Without Any Cover At All, Merely Upon The Prospect Of Their Success, And Always Upon Terms Far Easier Than Are Open To Their Smaller Rivals. It Is Perhaps On This Line Of Easier Credit That Large Capital Today Does Most Harm To Small Capital, Drives It Out And Ruins It.
Doe
Credit
Rivals
There Is Already Something Like A Jewish Monopoly In High Finance... Here Is The Same Element Of Jewish Monopoly In The Silver Trade, And In The Control Of Various Other Metals, Notably Lead, Nickel, Quicksilver. What Is Most Disquieting Of All, This Tendency To Monopoly Is Spreading Like A Disease.
Elements
Disease
Finance
The Smaller Man Approaching Our Modern Banking System, Which Controls All Issue Of Credit And Therefore Pretty Well All Our Industrial And Commercial Activities, Is Not What The Controllers Of That Credit Call "interesting." He Borrows With Difficulty And Upon High Terms, And Must Pledge Security Out Of All Proportion To That Which His Richer Rival Has To Put Down.
Men
Issues
Interesting
How Slow The Shadow Creeps: But When 'tis Past How Fast The Shadows Fall. How Fast! How Fast!
Fall
Past
Shadow
When I Am Dead, I Hope It May Be Said: His Sins Were Scarlet, But His Books Were Read.
Funny
Death
Reading
It Is Therefore Our Business To Restore Economic Freedom Through The Restoration Of The Only Institution Under Which It Flourishes, Which Institution Is Property. The Problem Before Us Is, How To Restore Property So That It Shall Be, As It Was Not So Long Ago, A General Institution.
Long Ago
Restoration
Politics
Coupled With Usury, Unrestricted Competition Destroys The Small Man For The Profit Of The Great And In So Doing Produces That Mass Of Economically Unfree Citizens Whose Very Political Freedom Comes In Question Because It Has No Foundation In Any Economic Freedom, That Is, Any Useful Proportion Of Property To Support It. Political Freedom Without Economic Freedom Is Almost Worthless, And It Is Because The Modern Proletariat Has The One Kind Of Freedom Without The Other That Its Rebellion Is Now Threatening The Very Structure Of The Modern World.
Wisdom
Men
Support
The Llama Is A Woolly Sort Of Fleecy Hairy Goat, With An Indolent Expression And An Undulating Throat; Like An Unsuccessful Literary Man.
Men
Llamas
Expression
When The Mass Of Men Are Dispossessed - Own Nothing - They Become Wholly Dependent Upon The Owners; And When Those Owners Are In Active Competition To Lower The Cost Of Production The Mass Of Men Whom They Exploit Not Only Lack The Power To Order Their Own Lives, But Suffer From Want And Insecurity As Well.
Wisdom
Men
Order
Remote And Ineffectual Don.
College
University
We May Not Say To The Poor: "you Have A Right To Fight The Rich Merely Because They Are Rich And In Order To Make Yourselves Less Poor." We May Say: "you Have A Right To Fight To Prevent The Conditions Of Your Life Becoming Inhuman," But We May Not Say, "you Have A Right To Fight Merely Because You Desire To Have More And Your Opponent To Have Less."
Wisdom
Fighting
Order
Writing Itself Is A Bad Enough Trade, Rightly Held Up To Ridicule And Contempt By The Greater Part Of Mankind, And Especially By Those Who Do Real Work, Plowing, Riding, Sailing
Real
Writing
Sailing
It Was The Faith Which Gradually And Indirectly Transformed The Slave Into The Serf, And The Serf Into The Free Peasant... You Will Not Be Able To Set Up In A Pagan Or An Heretical Or A Wholly Indifferent Society The Institutions Characteristic Of Economic Freedom; You Will Not Be Able To Curb Competition Which Alone Would Be Sufficient To Destroy Such Freedom, Nor Pursue Permanently And Consecutively Any One Part Of The Program. The Thing Must Be Done As A Whole, And It Can Be Done As A Whole Only By The Ambient Influence Of Catholicism.
Competition
Would Be
Done
Ownership By Delegation Is A Contradiction In Terms. When Men Say, For Instance (by A False Metaphor), That Each Member Of The Public Should Feel Himself An Owner Of Public Property-such As A Town Park-and Should Therefore Respect It As His Own, They Are Saying Something Which All Our Experience Proves To Be Completely False. No Man Feels Of Public Property That It Is His Own; No Man Will Treat It With The Care Of The Affection Of A Thing Which Is His Own.
Men
Care
Politics
When You Have Lost Your Inns, Drown Your Empty Selves, For You Will Have Lost The Last Of England.
Self
Lasts
England
Loss And Possession, Death And Life Are One, There Falls No Shadow Where There Shines No Sun.
Life
Death
Fall
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