Hilaire Belloc - The path to Rome (1902)

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'… and as to what may be in this book, do not feel timid nor hesitate to enter. There are more mountains than molehills …'

Hilaire Belloc

Then let us love one another and laugh. Time passes, and we shall soon laugh no longer—and meanwhile common living is a burden, and earnest men are in siege upon us all around. Let us suffer absurdities, for this is only to suffer one another.

Hilaire Belloc

Man may […] be master of his fate, but he has a precious poor servant. It is easier to command a lapdog or a mule for a whole day than one's own fate for half-an-hour.

Hilaire Belloc

I sincerely hope, trust, and pray that this part of my journey will not seem as dull to you as it did to me at the time, or as it does to me now while I write of it. But now I come to think of it, it cannot seem as dull, for I had to walk that wretched thirty miles or so all the day long, whereas you have not even to read it; for I am not going to say anything more about it, but lead you straight to the end. Oh, blessed quality of books, that makes them a refuge from living! For in a book everything can be made to fit in, all tedium can be skipped over, and the intense moments can be made timeless and eternal.

Hilaire Belloc

Write as the wind blows and command all words like an army! See them how they stand in rank ready for assault, the jolly, swaggering fellows!

Hilaire Belloc

And what is there else but pleasure, and to what else does beauty move on?

Hilaire Belloc

Death […] people nowadays seem to regard as something odd, whereas it is well known to be the commonest thing in the world.

Hilaire Belloc