I found the whole modern world talking scientific fatalism; saying that everything is as it must always
have been, being unfolded without fault from the beginning. The leaf on the tree is green because it could
never have been anything else. Now, the fairy-tale philosopher is glad that the leaf is green precisely because
it might have been scarlet. He feels as if it had turned green an instant before he looked at it.
Tags: humility wonder creativity creation gratitude
Those might not be the very best judges of the relation of religion to happiness who, by their own account, had neither one nor the other.
G.K. ChestertonTags: pessimism faith skepticism
I still think sincere pessimism the unpardonable sin.
G.K. ChestertonTags: optimism pessimism faith
Christianity got over the difficulty of combining furious opposites, by keeping them both, and keeping them both furious.
G.K. ChestertonTags: balance contradictions contention
Think of all those ages through which men have had the courage to die, and then remember that we have actually fallen to talking about having the courage to live.
G.K. ChestertonTags: death euthanasia assisted-suicide
Children are grateful when Santa Claus puts in their stockings gifts of toys or sweets. Could I not be grateful to Santa Claus when he put in my stockings the gift of two miraculous legs? We thank people for birthday presents of cigars and slippers. Can I thank no one for the birthday present of birth?
G.K. ChestertonTags: gratitude complaining
As long as the vision of heaven is always changing, the vision of earth will be exactly the same. No ideal will remain long enough to be realized, or even partly realized. The modern young man will never change his environment; for he will always change his mind.
G.K. ChestertonTags: progress heaven idealism goal-setting
People have fallen into a foolish habit of speaking of orthodoxy as something heavy, humdrum, and safe. There never was anything so perilous or so exciting as orthodoxy. It was sanity: and to be sane is more dramatic than to be mad.
G.K. ChestertonDon't ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up.
G.K. ChestertonWe are fond of talking about 'liberty'; but the way we end up actually talking of it is an attempt to avoid discussing what is 'good.' We are fond of talking about 'progress'; that is a dodge to avoid discussing what is good. We are fond of talking about 'education'; that is a dodge to avoid discussing what is good.
The modern man says, 'Let us leave all these arbitrary standards and embrace unadulterated liberty.' This is, logically rendered, 'Let us not decide what is good, but let it be considered good not to decide it.'
He says, 'Away with your old moral standard; I am for progress.' This, logically stated, means, 'Let us not settle what is good; but let us settle whether we are getting more of it.'
He says, 'Neither in religion nor morality, my friend, lie the hopes of the race, but in education.' This, clearly expressed, means, 'We cannot decide what is good, but let us give it to our children.
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