K. Chesterton
K. Chesterton
miracles wonderful
The most wonderful thing about miracles is that they sometimes happen.
cease happens nowadays people retirement work worst
The worst of work nowadays is what happens to people when they cease to work.
church world grows
If the world grows to worldly, it can be rebuked by the Church; but if the Church grows to worldly, it cannot be adequately rebuked for worldlyness by the world.
slang streams
The one stream of poetry which is continually flowing is slang.
dragons fairy-stories fairy-tale
Fairy tales are more than true ...
apples noses newton
If the apple hit Newton’s nose, Newton’s nose hit the apple.
learning past romance
The last few decades have been marked by a special cultivation of the romance of the future. We seem to have made up our minds to misunderstand what has happened; and we turn, with a sort of relief, to stating what will happen-which is apparently much easier...The modern mind is forced towards the future by a certain sense of fatigue, not unmixed with terror, with which it regards the past.
humility pride feet
Pride juggles with her toppling towers, They strike the sun and cease, But the firm feet of humility They grip the ground like trees.
kings taken past
Literary men are being employed to praise a big business man personally, as men used to praise a king. They not only find political reasons for the commercial schemes that they have done for some time past they also find moral defences for the commercial schemers. ... I do resent the whole age of patronage being revived under such absurd patrons; and all poets becoming court poets, under kings that have taken no oath.
reputation virtue
Very few reputations are gained by unsullied virtue.
kings son men
Aristocracy is an atmosphere; it is sometimes a healthy atmosphere; but it is very hard to say when it becomes an unhealthy atmosphere. You can prove that a man is not the son of a king, or that he is not the delegate of a definite number of people. But you cannot prove that a man is not a gentleman.
ivory white snow
Ivory may not be so white as snow, but the whole Arctic continent does not make ivory black.
legends chiefs century
It is the chief value of legend to mix up the centuries while preserving the sentiment.
mistake men inferiority
A man looking at a hippopotamus may sometimes be tempted to regard a hippopotamus as an enormous mistake; but he is also bound to confess that a fortunate inferiority prevents him personally from making such mistakes.