Optimism approves of everything, submits to everything, believes everything; it is the virtue above all of the taxpayer.

A poor man with nothing in his belly needs hope, illusion, more than bread.

It's a fine thing to rise above pride, but you must have pride in order to do so.

The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means.

Little things seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which individually seem odorless but all together perfume the air.

Hope is a risk that must be run.

Suicide only really frightens those who are never tempted by it and never will be, for its darkness only welcomes those who are predestined to it.

Faith is not a thing which one loses, we merely cease to shape our lives by it.

...the most dangerous shortsightedness consists in underestimating the mediocre.

You owe it to everyone you love to find pockets of tranquility in your busy world.

Civilization exists precisely so that there may be no masses but rather men alert enough never to constitute masses.

Stop cheating to be rich. Stop stealing to be wealthy. Stop siphoning the valuables of other people to keep for yourself.

Cherish your existence, for memories become legacies and life can change in an instant.

If you are holding hands with others, you can't hold a gun!

In the past, only some of the males, but all of the females, were able to procreate. Equality is more natural for females.

After one of the lectures in Philadelphia, a woman asked Chesterton what made women talk so much, to which he replied, briefly, 'God, Madam'.

Get outside. Watch the sunrise. Watch the sunset. How does that make you feel? Does it make you feel big or tiny? Because there's something good about feeling both.

Grief is fantastical, and loves the dead, And the apparel of the grave.

Wax myrtle: The birds love this stuff.

You can have a movie with hardly any cuts, or very few cuts, that is fascinating, you can't take your eyes away from it... Look at some of the long takes in Citizen Kane.

A word is nothing unless it has values and an atmosphere, unless you grasp its historical significance.