He who has no sympathy with myths has no sympathy with men. Gilbert K. Chesterton More Quotes by Gilbert K. Chesterton More Quotes From Gilbert K. Chesterton Folk-lore means that the soul is sane, but that the universe is wild and full of marvels. Realism means that the world is dull and full of routine, but that the soul is sick and screaming. The problem of the fairy tale is: what will a healthy man do with a fantastic world? The problems of the modern novel is: what will a madman do with a dull world? In the fairy tales the cosmos goes mad; but the hero does not go mad. In the modern novels the hero is mad before the book begins, and suffers from the harsh steadiness and cruel sanity of the cosmos. Gilbert K. Chesterton hero mean book The reason that angels fly is that they take themselves so lightly. Gilbert K. Chesterton angel reason Physical science is like simple addition: it is either infallible or it is false. Gilbert K. Chesterton infallible physical-science simple If the apple hit Newton’s nose, Newton’s nose hit the apple. Gilbert K. Chesterton newton apples noses Christian Science … is the direct denial both of science and of Christianity, for Science rests wholly on the recognition of truth and Christianity on the recognition of pain. Gilbert K. Chesterton pain truth christian The artistic temperament is a disease that afflicts amateurs. It is a disease which arises from men no having sufficient power of expression to utter and get rid of the element of art in their being. Gilbert K. Chesterton expression men art It is a mathematical fact that if a line be not perfectly directed towards a point, it will actually go further away from it as it comes nearer to it. Gilbert K. Chesterton mathematical lines facts The best way that a man could test his readiness to encounter the common variety of mankind would be to climb down a chimney into any house at random, and get on as well as possible with the people inside. And that is essentially what each one of us did on the day that he was born. Gilbert K. Chesterton house men people Against a dark sky, all flowers look like fireworks. Gilbert K. Chesterton flower dark sky Humility is the luxurious art of reducing ourselves to a point, not to a small thing or a large one, but to a thing with no size at all, so that to it all the cosmic things are what they really are - of immeasurable stature. Gilbert K. Chesterton size humility art Humour is meant, in a literal sense, to make game of man; that is, to dethrone him from his official dignity and hunt him like game. Gilbert K. Chesterton dignity games men It was the mystical dogma of Bentham and Adam Smith and the rest, that some of the worst of human passions would turn out to be all for the best. It was the mysterious doctrine that selfishness would do the work of unselfishness. Gilbert K. Chesterton doctrine selfishness passion The Party System was founded on one national notion of fair play. It was the notion that folly and futility should be fairly divided between both sides. Gilbert K. Chesterton party humor play Nothing is so remote from us as the thing which is not old enough to be history and not new enough to be news. Gilbert K. Chesterton news enough The life of a thinking man will probably be divided into two parts -- the first in which he desires to exterminate modern thinkers, and the second in which he desires to watch them exterminating each other. ... Suppose, for instance, there is an old story and a new skeptic who is skeptical of the story. We have only to wait a little while for a yet newer skeptic who is skeptical of the skeptic. He will probably find the old notion actually a help in his new notion. This process is an abstract truth applying to anything, apart from agreement or disagreement. Gilbert K. Chesterton truth men thinking Correctitude implies nowadays a formal or fastidious use of words; and what is wanted is not so much the correct as the living use of words. It is the memory of the meaning of a word which is the life of the word. Gilbert K. Chesterton truth use memories 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. Gilbert K. Chesterton romance learning past The Byzantines hammered away at their hard and orthodox symbols, because they could not be in a mood to believe that men could take a hint. The moderns drag out into lengths and reels of extravagance their new orthodoxy of being unorthodox, because they also cannot give a hint -- or take a hint. Yet all perfect and well-poised art is really a hint. Gilbert K. Chesterton men believe art All architecture is great architecture after sunset. Gilbert K. Chesterton nocturnal sunset architecture Facts by themselves can often feed the flame of madness, because sanity is a spirit. Gilbert K. Chesterton flames spirit facts
