“But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond: and on these faces there is no smile.”

— Hilaire Belloc

Source: This and That and the Other (1912), Ch. XXXII : The Barbarians , p. 282
Context: In a word, the Barbarian is discoverable everywhere in this that he cannot make; that he can befog or destroy, but that he cannot sustain; and of every Barbarian in the decline or peril of every civilisation exactly that has been true.
We sit by and watch the Barbarian, we tolerate him; in the long stretches of peace we are not afraid.
We are tickled by his irreverence, his comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creeds refreshes us: we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond: and on these faces there is no smile.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond: and on these faces there is no smile." by Hilaire Belloc?

Hilaire Belloc91

writer 1870–1953

Related quotes

“We make fun of them in front of their faces, and laugh at them for not understanding we are insulting them.”

Bowe Bergdahl (1986) American soldier captured by the Taliban in 2009 and released in 2014 as part of a prisoner swap

Last e-mail to parents (2009)

“I am not dead I sit the sun closes my eyes when I open them I see the face I lost Sethe's is the face that left me Sethe sees me see her and I see the smile her smiling face is the place for me it is the face I lost she is my face smiling at me doing it at last a hot thing now we can join.”

Toni Morrison book Beloved

Source: Beloved (1987), Ch. 22

“And so my child and I came to this place
To meet him eye to eye and face to face.
He made my daughter laugh, then we embraced.
We never knew what friends we had
Until we came to Leningrad.”

Billy Joel (1949) American singer-songwriter and pianist

Leningrad.
Song lyrics, Storm Front (1989)

“Sometimes the Universe smiled. Mostly she kicked me in the face, stomped on my ribs once I fell down, and laughed at my pain, but once in a while she smiled.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Breaks

“The reward of putting a smile on a child’s face, who has to deal with so many challenges in life, is just beyond words. It's incredible.”

Kristi Yamaguchi (1971) American figure skater

"Kristi Yamaguchi: My Life After Figure Skating" in ABC News https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/kristi-yamaguchi-life-figure-skating/story?id=29556805 (12 March 2015)