The fence analogy colorfully conveys why some may be reluctant to embrace radical changes in government institutions, public policies, and social norms. It embodies the insight that stable institutions are hard to create and easy to destroy.

He was a polemicist of rare quality, but he wrote and spoke always with such good humour that he seldom made enemies.

Several books I purchased on my trip, among them G. K. Chesterton's The Ballad of the White Horse. Ever read it? It's great.

There is great poetry being written now. G.K. Chesterton, for instance.

The insistence of the Christian doctrine on man's limited condition was somehow enough of a philosophy to allow its adherents a very deep insight into the essential inhumanity of all those modern attempts – psychological, technical, biological – to change man into the monster of superman. They realized that a pursuit of happiness which actually means to wipe away all tears will pretty quickly end by wiping out all laughter. It was again Christianity which taught them that nothing human can exist beyond tears and laughter, except the silence of despair.

Moral issues are always terribly complex for someone without principles.

A man can never quite understand a boy, even when he has been the boy.

A man knocking on the door of a brothel is looking for God.

Q: What's wrong with the world? A: I am.

Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason why it was put up.