D v Hildebrand

One succinct observation by Dietrich von Hildebrand quoted in Pope John’s Council by Michael Davies: “The innovators would replace holy intimacy with Christ by an unbecoming familiarity".

Manning

So, in the face of this contradiction between his maximalism and his dismay at the pope’s ruling, he had no choice but to adopt Newman’s more minimalist interpretation. “The Decree of Leo XIII was absolutely true, just, and useful,” Manning said in painful embarrassment. “But in the abstract. The condition of Ireland is abnormal. The Decree contemplates facts which do not exist....Pontiffs have no infallibility in the world of facts, except only dogmatic. The [rent strike] is not a dogmatic fact, and it is one thing to declare that all legal agreements are binding, and another to say that all agreements in Ireland are legal.”

Dostotevsky

The importance of social "feeling" is pointed out in "The Devils" (or "The Possessed") by Dostoyevsky, which is considered a prophecy of the 1917 Russian Revolution, written in 1871. In it Peter Verkhovensky states: "The next powerful force is, of course, sentimentality. You know, socialism among us spreads chiefly because of sentimentality [....] And well, finally, the main force—the cement that holds everything together—is their being ashamed of possessing an opinion of their own [....] I tell you they'll go through fire for me. All I have to do is to raise my voice and tell them that they are not sufficiently 'liberal'" (p. 387, in the Penguin Classics edition).

Cardinal Pell

Modern liberalism has strong totalitarian tendencies. Institutions and associations, it implies, exist only with the permission of the state, and, to exist lawfully, they must abide the dictates or norms of the state.

Dorothy L. Sayers

Dorothy L Sayers once wrote: “Tolerance, which in hell is called despair, is the sin which believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, loves nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and only remains alive because there is nothing it would die for.”

Bp. Sheen

America, it is said, is suffering from intolerance—it is not. It is suffering from tolerance. Tolerance of right and wrong, truth and error, virtue and evil, Christ and chaos. Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded.

Orwell

During the past twenty-five years the activities of what are called “intellectuals” have been largely mischievous. I do not think it an exaggeration to say that if the “intellectuals” had done their work a little more thoroughly, Britain would have surrendered in 1940.

Cambridge Med Hist

There is an enormous book called volume 1 of A Cambridge History of the Middle Ages. It is 759 pages in length of close print . . . It does not mention the Mass once. That is as though you were to write a history of the Jewish dispersion without mentioning the synagogue or of the British empire without mentioning the city of London or the Navy (Letters from Hilaire Belloc, Hollis and Carter, 75).

Belloc on doctors

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.

Henry will very soon be dead."

College life

"You'll never find more intelligent, charming people than the drunk students of the college world."

Health care insurance

“Any plan that relies on the sheep to negotiate with the wolves is doomed to failure.”

New religions

Reverend Leroy was a con artist who, among other things, once took up an offering to go to Las Vegas, explaining he had to study sin in order to effectively preach against it.

John Paul II

“Stupidity is also a gift of God, but one mustn't misuse it.” Pope John Paul II

Wilde

"The Catholic Church is for saints and sinners alone — for respectable people, the Anglican Church will do".'

Wealth

Traditional Protestantism spoke of justification by faith; today, we have justification by wealth.

Thomas Sowell

The problem with trying to equalize is that you can usually only equalize downward.

Bible and marriage

"Top 10 Ways to Find a Wife, According to the Bible):

10. Find an attractive prisoner of war, bring her home, shave her head, trim her nails, and give her new clothes. Then she’s yours. – (Deuteronomy 21:11-13)
9. Find a prostitute and marry her. – (Hosea 1:1-3)
8. Find a man with seven daughters, and impress him by watering his flock.- Moses (Exodus 2:16-21)
7. Purchase a piece of property, and get a woman as part of the deal. – Boaz (Ruth 4:5-10)
6. Go to a party and hide. When the women come out to dance, grab one and carry her off to be your wife. – Benjaminites (Judges 21:19-25)
5. Have God create a wife for you while you sleep.-Adam (Genesis 2:19-24)
4. Kill any husband and take his wife. -David (2 Samuel 11)
3. Cut 200 foreskins off of your future father-in-law’s enemies and get his daughter for a wife -David (I Samuel 18:27)
2. Even if no one is out there, just wander around a bit and you’ll definitely find someone. -Cain (Genesis 4:16-17)
1. Don’t be so picky. Make up for quality with quantity. – Solomon (1 Kings 11:1-3)

Lincoln

I have never seen so many words put into so small an idea.

Justice Ginsburg racist

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gives a racist answer as to why she supports Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that allowed virtually unlimited abortions. Ginsburg spoke with New York Times Magazine and is set to be released in print on Sunday, but the interview has already been published online. Ginsburg says she backs Roe to eliminate "populations that we don't want to have too many of."

Coulter on Palin

Democrats are a party of women, and nothing drives them off their gourds like a beautiful Christian conservative.

Jaki. Proving the existence of God

For reasons inherent in the method of physical science, no watertight proof of the existence of God can be built on its data and conclusions. But this also meant that no refutation of the existence of God could he built on physics either.

Lincoln on slavery

“What we want, and all we want, is to have with us the men who think slavery wrong. But those who say they hate slavery, and are opposed to it, but yet act with the Democratic party — where are they? Let us apply a few tests. You say that you think slavery is wrong, but you denounce all attempts to restrain it. Is there anything else that you think wrong, that you are not willing to deal with as a wrong? Why are you so careful, so tender of this one wrong and no other? You will not let us do a single thing as if it was wrong; there is no place where you will allow it to be even called wrong! We must not call it wrong in the Free States, because it is not there, and we must not call it wrong in the Slave States because it is there; we must not call it wrong in politics because that is bringing morality into politics, and we must not call it wrong in the pulpit because that is bringing politics into religion; we must not bring it into the Tract Society or the other societies, because those are such unsuitable places, and there is no single place, according to you, where this wrong thing can properly be called wrong!”

H R Clinton

Hillary Rodham Clinton, likes the shovel-ready metaphor, too. "You know," she told a television interviewer the other day, "we are in just so many deep holes that everybody had better grab a shovel and start digging out."

Digging out of a hole?

Quotas

"Is the applicant black, female or otherwise handicapped?"