Quotes from Sobre o Nada e Assuntos Correlatos

It is one of the chiefest misfortunes of our time that the Sign-Post should have disappeared from our public ways.

Context: Belloc laments the loss of traditional sign-posts from the landscape. He sees their disappearance as symbolic of a broader confusion and lack of clear direction in modern life and society.

Ignorance is not the lack of knowledge, but the refusal to know; it is not emptiness but an active resistance to truth.

Context: Belloc explores the nature of ignorance, distinguishing it from mere lack of information. He argues that true ignorance is a willful, often stubborn, rejection of understanding or inconvenient facts.

That the dead should come back again to us is not only impossible, but, if it were possible, it would be intolerable.

Context: Belloc contemplates the fantastical idea of the dead returning to the living world. He concludes that such an event would be profoundly disruptive and unbearable for those left behind, rendering human life insupportable.

The whole pleasure of reading a great Public Man is that he does not mean a word he says.

Context: Belloc offers a cynical, yet humorous, take on public figures and politicians. He suggests that part of their appeal lies in their eloquent, but ultimately insincere, pronouncements, which allow for a detached appreciation.

The approach of an Enemy is among the most fascinating of all the changes of experience.

Context: Belloc reflects on the peculiar human psychology surrounding impending threats or adversaries. He suggests there is a strange, almost compelling allure in the anticipation of conflict or challenge.

The Heroic Poem is dead. We killed it with our littleness, our love of anecdote, our fear of the great thing.

Context: Belloc laments the decline of epic poetry in modern times. He attributes its demise to contemporary society's preference for triviality, personal narratives, and a general reluctance to engage with grand, universal themes.

The talk of men upon trains is very interesting to a silent observer.

Context: Belloc, a frequent traveler, describes his habit of quietly observing and listening to the spontaneous conversations of his fellow passengers. He finds particular insight and amusement in these unsolicited disclosures.

It is the little things which reveal the true nature of a man, not his grand pronouncements.

Context: Belloc posits that genuine character is best understood through an individual's minor habits, reactions, and everyday actions. He argues these small details are far more revealing than public statements or grand gestures.

Goodness, when it is active and not merely passive, is always something of a torment to those who possess it.

Context: Belloc offers a paradoxical view of active virtue, suggesting that genuine, engaged goodness is rarely comfortable or easy. He implies that true morality often entails personal struggle and discomfort for the virtuous individual.

For it is upon nothing that we commonly build our most considerable structures of thought and emotion.

Context: In the titular essay, Belloc makes a profound observation about human nature. He suggests that much of humanity's deepest beliefs, imaginative constructs, and intense passions are often founded upon abstract concepts or voids, rather than concrete realities.