G. K. Chesterton/Quotes: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''The idea that there is something English in the repression of one's feelings is one of those ideas which no Englishman ever heard of until England began to be governed exclusively by Scotchmen, Americans, and Jews. At the best, the idea is a generalization from the Duke of Wellington -- who was an Irishman. At the worst, it is a part of that silly Teutonism which knows as little about England as it does about anthropology, but which is always talking about Vikings.''|'''[[GK Chesterton|G. K. Chesterton]]''', ''Heretics'' (1905)}}

{{quote|''This is that insanely frivolous thing we call sanity. And the elegant female, drooping her ringlets over her water-colors, knew it and acted on it. She was juggling with frantic and flaming suns. She was maintaining the bold equilibrium of inferiorities which is the most mysterious of superiorities and perhaps the most unattainable. She was maintaining the prime truth of woman, the universal mother: that if a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.''|'''[[GK Chesterton|G. K. Chesterton]]''', ''What's Wrong With The World'' (1910)}}

''Yea, faith without a hope?''|'''[[GK Chesterton|G. K. Chesterton]]''', ''The Ballad of the White Horse'' (1911)}}

''And all their songs are sad.''|'''[[GK Chesterton|G. K. Chesterton]]''', ''The Ballad of the White Horse'' (1911)}}

{{quote|''I was very agreeably surprised in him. I had been afraid he would be untidy in his person and aggressive in his manner. He was very huge and ugly, of course, but it is a nice ugliness... one liked his voice -- it was the voice of a gentleman, and suggested not only culture but breeding.... His lecture was very Chestertonian, but much sounder than I had expected and not so fire-worky. He said some really excellent things. I have noted for future use, that his books ought to be read as he speaks -- rather slowly, and delivering the paradoxical statements tentatively. His speaking has none of that aggressive and dogmatic quality which his writings are apt to assume when read aloud.''|'''[[Dorothy L. Sayers]]''', ''Letter to her Parents'' (May 17, 1914)}}

''Comes up along a winding road the noise of the Crusade.''|'''[[GK Chesterton|G. K. Chesterton]]''', ''Lepanto'' (1915)}}

{{quote|''Christendom has had a series of revolutions and in each one of them Christianity has died. Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a god who knew the way out of the grave.''|'''[[GK Chesterton|G. K. Chesterton]]''', ''The Everlasting Man'' (1925)}}

{{quote|''A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.''|'''[[GK Chesterton|G. K. Chesterton]]''', ''The Everlasting Man'' (1925)}}

{{quote|''The perfect happiness of men on the earth (if it ever comes) will not be a flat and solid thing, like the satisfaction of animals. It will be an exact and perilous balance; like that of a desperate romance. Man must have just enough faith in himself to have adventures, and just enough doubt of himself to enjoy them.''|'''[[GK Chesterton|G. K. Chesterton]]''', ''Orthodoxy'' (1909)}}

{{quote|''At that moment, however, the drowsy stillness of the summer afternoon was shattered by what sounded to his strained senses like G.K. Chesterton falling on a sheet of tin.''|'''[[PG Wodehouse (Creator)|P. G. Wodehouse]]''', ''Mr. Mulliner Speaking'' (1929)}}

{{quote|''G.K. Chesterton died yesterday. [[PG Wodehouse (Creator)|P. G. Wodehouse]] is now the greatest living master of the English language.''|'''[[The Once and Future King|T.H. White]]''' (June 15, 1936)}}

{{quote|''P.<ref>Priscilla Tolkien, his daughter</ref> ... has been wading through The Ballad of the White Horse for the last many nights; and my efforts to explain the obscurer parts to her convince me that it is not as good as I thought. The ending is absurd. The brilliant smash and glitter of the words and phrases (when they come off, and are not mere loud colours) cannot disguise the fact that G.K.C. knew nothing whatever about the 'North', heathen or Christian.''|'''[[JRRJ. TolkienR. (Creator)R. Tolkien|J.R.R. Tolkien]]''', ''Letter to Christopher Tolkien'' (September 3, 1944)}}

{{quote|''Compare [[The Man Who Was Thursday|it]] with another good writer, [[Franz Kafka|Kafka]]. Is the difference simply that the one is "dated" and the other contemporary? Or is it rather that while both give a powerful picture of the loneliness and bewilderment which each one of us encounters in his (apparently) single-handed struggle with the universe, Chesterton, attributing to the universe a more complicated disguise, and admitting the exhilaration as well as the terror of the struggle, has got in rather more; is more balanced: in that sense, more classical, more permanent?''|'''[[CSC. LewisS. (Creator)Lewis|CS Lewis]]''', "The 'Period Talent' of G. K. Chesterton," ''The Listener'' (October 17, 1946)}}

{{quote|''Chesterton had more sense than all the other moderns put together.''|'''[[CSC. LewisS. (Creator)Lewis|CS Lewis]]''', ''Surprised by Joy'' (1955)}}