Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“ The temperature of the meeting, I am proud to say, rose higher and higher: a perfect rattle of repartees, the sympathisers on each side rocked and roared, a large fat farmer of Conservative opinions was beginning with a dreadful and dangerous slowness to think of something to say ”

“ Our politics for the night had ended. Our politics had ended exactly at the point where all politics ought to begin.
It seemed to me that on this little green, as on a green baize stage, was acted an allegory of the whole situation of our contemporary statesmanship. Everything goes on gaily as long as we are dealing with things. Everything stops abruptly the moment we come to men. ”

“ We are allowed to say: 'The supporters of the Blue-nosed Monkeys Modification and Improvement Act are corrupt scoundrels.' We are allowed to say, 'Sir William Guppy is a supporter of the Blue-nosed Monkeys Modification and Improvement Act'. We are not allowed to complete the syllogism. Everybody says with one accord in our English Parliament: `Let us have no personalities in politics.' Every Briton says at his breakfast table: 'At least, we are not like the French and the Irish; we have no personalities in our politics.' And because we have no personalities we have no responsibilities. ”