REMANATIONS » Wisdom from G.K.

The Romance of Orthodoxy [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 11:37:43 +0000

This is the thrilling romance of Orthodoxy. 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. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 92)

Truth Is A Hairs Breadth from Blasphemy [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:34:27 +0000

It was no flock of sheep the Christian shepherd was leading, but a herd of bulls and tigers, of terrible ideals and devouring doctrines, each one of them strong enough to turn to a false religion and lay waste the world. Remember that the Church went in specifically for dangerous ideas; she was a lion tamer. The idea of birth through a Holy Spirit, of the death of a divine being, of the forgiveness of sins, or the fulfillment of prophecies, are ideas which, anyone can see, need but a touch to turn them into something blasphemous or ferocious.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 92)

Lions and Lambs [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:30:53 +0000

It is constantly assured, especially in our Tolstoyan tendencies, that when the lion lies down with the lamb the lion becomes lamb-like. But that is a brutal annexation and imperialism on the part of the lamb. That is simply the lamb absorbing the lion instead of the lion eating the lamb. The real problem is–Can the lion lie down with the lamb and still retain his royal ferocity?

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 90)

Which Is Not As Easy As It Sounds [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:28:02 +0000

All that I am urging here can be expressed by saying that Christianity sought in most of these cases to keep two colors coexistent but pure.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 89)

Drawn and Quartered, Chesterton-Style [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 11:23:15 +0000

Both passions were free because both were kept in their place. The optimist could pour out all the praise he liked on the gay music of the march, the golden trumpets, and the purple banners going into battle. But he must not call the fight needless. The pessimist might draw as darkly as he chose the sickening marches and the sanguine wounds. But he must not call the fight hopeless.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 88)

Why God Loves Order [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 12:32:59 +0000

And the more I considered Christianity, the more I found that while it had established a rule and order, the chief aim of that order was to give room for good things to run wild.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 87)

Crimes and Criminals [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 12:28:43 +0000

Take another case: the complicated question of charity…A sensible pagan would say that there are some people one could forgive and some one couldn’t…Christianity came in here as before. It came in startlingly with a sword, and clove one thing from another. It divided the crime from the criminal. The criminal we must forgive unto seventy times seven. The crime we must not forgive at all…We must be much more angry with theft than before, and yet much kinder to thieves than before.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 87)

Statues of God [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:19:52 +0000

Man was a statue of God walking about the garden. Man had preeminence over all the brutes; man was only sad because he was not a beast, but a broken god.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 86)

Just Call Me “Chief” [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 12:16:29 +0000

It separated the two ideas and then exaggerated them both. In one way Man was to be haughtier than he had ever been before; in another way he was to be humbler than he had ever been before. In so far as I am Man I am the chief of creatures. In so far as I am a man I am the chief of sinners.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 86)

The Contradiction of Courage [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:13:50 +0000

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 85)

What If Jesus Wasn’t the Christ? [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 12:25:34 +0000

But if this mass of mad contradictions really existed, quakerish and bloodthirsty, too gorgeous and too threadbare, austere, yet pandering preposterously to the lust of the eye, the enemy of women and their foolish refuge, a solemn pessimist and a silly optimist, if this evil existed, then there was in this evil something quite supreme and unique. For I found in my rationalist teachers no explanation of such exceptional corruption…Such a paradox of evil rose to the stature of the supernatural. It was, indeed, almost as supernatural as the infallibility of the Pope. An historic institution, which never went right, is really quite as much of a miracle as an institution that cannot go wrong. The only explanation which immediately occurred to my mind was that Christianity did not come from heaven, but from hell. Really, if Jesus of Nazareth was not Christ, He must have been Antichrist.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (pg. 82)

Perhaps the Truth of God? [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:23:25 +0000

This began to be alarming. It looked not so much as if Christianity was bad enough to include any vices, but rather as if any stick was good enough to beat Christianity with. What again could this astonishing thing be which people were so anxious to contradict, that in doing so they did not mind contradicting themselves?

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (pp. 80-81)

Complimenting Themselves With Insults [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:16:36 +0000

The one real objection to the Christian religion is simply that it is one religion. The world is a big place, full of very different kinds of people. Christianity (it may be reasonably said) is one thing confined to one kind of people…I was thoroughly annoyed with Christianity for suggesting (as I supposed) that whole ages and empires of men had utterly escaped this light of justice and reason. I found that the very people who said that mankind was one church from Plato to Emerson were the very people who said that morality had changed altogether, and that what was right in one age was wrong in another…I found it was their daily taunt against Christianity that it was the light of one people and had left all others to die in the dark. But I also found that it was their special boast for themselves that science and progress were the discovery of one people, and that all other peoples had died in the dark. Their chief insult to Christianity was actually their chief compliment to themselves, and there seemed to be a strange unfairness about all their relative insistence on the two things.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (pp. 79-80)

Unmanly Warriors [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:09:35 +0000

I felt that a strong case against Christianity lay in the charge that there is something timid, monkish, and unmanly about all that is “Christian,” especially in its attitude towards resistance and fighting…The Gospel paradox about the other cheek, the fact that priests never fought, a hundred things made plausible the accusation that Christianity was an attempt to make a man too like a sheep…I turned the next page in my agnostic manual, and my brain turned upside down. Now I found that I was to hate Christianity not for fighting too little, but for fighting too much. Christianity, it seemed, was the mother of wars. Christianity had deluged the world with blood. I had got thoroughly angry with the Christian, because he never was angry. And now I was told to be angry with him because his anger had been the most huge and horrible thing in human history…What was this Christianity which always forbade war and always produced wars? What could be the nature of the thing which one could abuse first because it would not fight, and second because it was always fighting?

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (pp. 78-79)

Throw Everything At It and See What Sticks [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:00:18 +0000

I was much moved by the eloquent attack on Christianity as a thing of inhuman gloom; for I thought (and still think) sincere pessimism the unpardonable sin…if Christianity was, as these people said, a thing purely pessimistic and opposed to life, then I was quite prepared to blow up St. Paul’s Cathedral. But the extraordinary thing is this. They did prove to me in Chapter I (to my complete satisfaction) that Christianity was too pessimistic; and then, in Chapter II, they began to prove to me that it was a great deal too optimistic. One accusation against Christianity was that it prevented men, by morbid tears and terrors, from seeking joy and liberty in the bosom of Nature. But another accusation was that it comforted men with a fictitious providence, and put them in a pink-and-white nursery…One rationalist was hardly done calling Christianity a nightmare before another began to call it a fool’s paradise.

Christianity: The Roundest Square You’ve Ever Seen [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:52:32 +0000

As I read and re-read all the non-Christian or anti-Christian accounts of the faith…a slow and awful impression grew gradually upon my mind–the impression that Christianity must be a most extraordinary thing…It was attacked on all sides and for all contradictory reasons. No sooner had one rationalist demonstrated that it was too far to the east than another demonstrated that it was much too far to the west. No sooner had my indignation died down at its angular and aggressive squareness than I was called up again to notice and condemn its enervating and sensual roundness.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (pg. 77)

Like A Fish Proving The Existence of Water [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 12:08:41 +0000

It is very hard for a man to defend anything of which he is entirely convinced. It is comparatively easy when he is only partially convinced. He is partially convinced because he has found this or that proof of the thing, and he can expound it. But a man is not really convinced of a philosophic theory when finds that something proves it. He is only really convinced when he finds that everything proves it. And the more converging reasons he finds pointing to this conviction, the more bewildered he is if asked suddenly to sum them up. Thus, if one asked an ordinarily intelligent man, on the spur of the moment, “Why do you prefer civilization to savagery?” he would look wildly round at object after object, and would only be able to answer vaguely, “Why, there is that bookcase…and the coals in the coal-scuttle…and pianos…and policemen.” The whole case for civilization is that the case for it is complex. It has done so many things. But that very multiplicity of proof which ought to make reply overwhelming makes reply impossible.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 75)

NOTE: I love this quotation and can greatly relate to its sentiment. So many trajectories are set by first principles, by foundational assumptions, that to try to discuss the details without addressing the core is often an exercise in futility. If two people get in a disagreement, one who prefers civilization and one who prefers savagery, it does no good for the civilized man to point to the bookcase over and over. The ubiquity and obviousness of his belief makes it far more difficult for him to articulate and convince others.

Chesterton’s observation also proves illuminating for many contemporary political and theological debates. It also helps us to see the impossibility, from a human perspective, of evangelism. In one sense, the Christian finds himself to be a fish in the strange position of convincing his fellow that they are, in fact, in water. If the other fellow is convinced otherwise, what could you possibly say to him?

Christianity Fits [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:57:49 +0000

When once one believes in a creed, one is proud of its complexity, as scientists are proud of the complexity of science. It shows how rich it is in discoveries. If it is right at all, it is a compliment to say that it’s elaborately right. A stick might fit a hole or a stone a hollow by accident. But a key and a lock are both complex. And if a key fits a lock, you know it is the right key.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 75)

NOTE: Though this isn’t the reason that I first became a Christian at age twelve, it is one of the reasons that I remain a Christian. The explanatory power of Christianity, down to the details, is one of the most glorious signs of its truthfulness. One of my aims in all my teaching (and now blogging) is to constantly remind myself and others that what we see in reality is accounted for by the Christian faith. Christianity fits.

Responding to the Odd [Wisdom from G.K.

joerigney — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 12:54:43 +0000

It is my only purpose in this chapter to point this out; to show that whenever we feel there is something odd in Christian theology, we shall generally find that there is something odd in the truth.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 74)

That’s a Funny Thing to Make You Happy [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 12:01:46 +0000

I had often called myself an optimist, to avoid the too evident blasphemy of pessimism. But all the optimism of the age had been false and disheartening for this reason, that it had always been trying to prove that we fit into the world. The Christian optimism is based on the fact that we do not fit into the world. I had tried to be happy by telling myself that man is an animal, like any other which sought its meat from God. But now I really was happy, for I had learnt that man is a monstrosity.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 71)

Fitting Us Like A Glove [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:53:49 +0000

I had found this hole in the world: the fact that one must somehow find a way of loving the world without trusting it; somehow one must love the world without being worldly. I found this projecting feature of Christian theology, like a sort of hard spike, the dogmatic insistence that God was personal, and had made a world separate from Himself. The spike of dogma fitted exactly the hole in the world–it had evidently been meant to go there–and then the strange thing began to happen. When once these two parts of the two machines had come together, one after another, all the other parts fitted and fell in with an eerie exactitude.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 70)

The World Is God’s Play [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:50:47 +0000

According to most philosophers, God in making the world enslaved it. According to Christianity, in making it, He set it free. God had written, not so much a poem, but rather a play; a play he had planned as perfect, but which had necessarily been left to human actors and stage-managers, who had since made a great mess of it.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 69)

The Most Horrible Religion (And One of the Most Popular) [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 12:43:06 +0000

Of all conceivable forms of enlightenment the worst is what these people call the Inner Light. Of all horrible religions the most horrible is the worship of the god within. Any one who knows any body knows how it would work; any one who knows any one from the Higher Thought Centre knows how it does work. That Jones shall worship the god within him turns out ultimately to mean that Jones shall worship Jones. Let Jones worship the sun or moon, anything rather than the Inner Light; let Jones worship cats or crocodiles, if he can find any in his street, but not the god within. Christianity came into the world firstly in order to assert with violence that a man had not only to look inwards, but to look outwards, to behold with astonishment and enthusiasm a divine company and a divine captain. The only fun of being a Christian was that a man was not left alone with the Inner Light, but definitely recognized an outer light, fair as the sun, clear as the moon, terrible as an army with banners.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 67)

Well I Only Believe in Gravity from Nine to Noon on Wednesdays [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 12:33:09 +0000

An imbecile habit has arisen in modern controversy of saying that such and such a creed can be held in one age but cannot be held in another. Such dogma, we are told, was credible in the twelfth century, but is not credible in the twentieth. you might as well say that a certain philosophy can be believed on Mondays, but cannot be believed on Tuesdays.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 66)

Is It Really A Coincidence? [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:30:04 +0000

Then I remembered that it was actually the charge against Christianity that it combined these two things which I was wildly trying to combine. Christianity was accused, at one and the same time, of being too optimistic about the universe and of being too pessimistic about the world. The coincidence made me suddenly stand still.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 65)

“Grab Your Pitchforks! We’re Storming the Cottage!” [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:27:59 +0000

We have to feel the universe at once as an ogre’s castle, to be stormed, and yet as our own cottage, to which we can return at evening.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 63)

Is Love Blind? [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:25:38 +0000

Love is not blind; that is the last thing that it is. Love is bound; and the more it is bound the less it is blind.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 62)

The Jingo of the Universe [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 12:22:44 +0000

What is the evil of the man commonly called an optimist? Obviously, it is felt that the optimist, wishing to defend the honor of this world, will defend the indefensible. He is the jingo of the universe; he will say, “My cosmos, right or wrong…” He will not wash the world, but whitewash the world.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 61)

Beware of Criticizing What You Don’t Love [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 12:19:55 +0000

The evil of the pessimist is, then, not that he chastises the gods and men, but that he does not love what he chastises–he has not this primary and supernatural loyalty to things.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 61)

Don’t Be Like This [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 12:16:08 +0000

I venture to say that what is bad in the candid friend is simply that he is not candid. He is keeping something back–his own gloomy pleasure in saying unpleasant things.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 60)

Rally Round the Flag [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 12:13:13 +0000

My acceptance of the universe is not optimism, it is more like patriotism. it is a matter of primary loyalty. The world is not a lodging-house at Brighton, which we are to leave because it is miserable. It is the fortress of our family, with the flag flying on the turret, and the more miserable it is the less we should leave it.

–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 59)

If There’s a Story, There Must Be A…. [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:00:11 +0000

In short, I had always believed that the world involved magic: now I thought that perhaps it involved a magician. And this pointed a profound emotion always present and subconscious; that this world of ours had some purpose; and if there is a purpose, there is a person. I had always felt life first as a story: and if there is a story there is a storyteller.
–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 52)

How Old Is God Really? [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:56:57 +0000

It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.
–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 51)

Children are Stronger than Grown-ups [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 12:54:23 +0000

Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony.
–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 51)

Some Things Never Get Old [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 12:51:47 +0000

Now, to put the matter in a popular phrase, it might be true that the sun rises regularly because he never gets tired of rising. His routine may be due, not to a lifelessness, but to a rush of life.
–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 51)

Do You Ever Get the Feeling That Someone Is Trying To Get Your Attention? [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 12:48:31 +0000

But the repetition in Nature seemed sometimes to be an excited repetition, like that of an angry schoolmaster saying the same thing over and over again. The grass seemed signaling to me with all its fingers at once; the crowded stars seemed bent on being understood. The sun would make me see him if he rose a thousand times. The recurrences of the universe rose to the maddening rhythm of an incantation, and I began to see an idea.
–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 50)

When Elephants Conspire [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 12:45:16 +0000

The mere repetition made the things to me rather more weird than more rational. It was as if, having seen a curiously shaped nose in the street and dismissed it as an accident, I had then seen six other noses of the same astonishing shape. I should have fancied for a moment that it must be some local secret society. So one elephant having a trunk was odd; but all elephants having trunks looked like a plot.
G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 50)

The Terrible Excitement of Monogamy [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 12:41:22 +0000

I could never mix in the common murmur of that rising generation against monogamy…Keeping one woman is a small price for so much as seeing one woman. To complain that I could only be married once was like complaining that I had only been born once. It was incommensurate with the terrible excitement of which one was talking.
G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 48 )

Grateful to Whom? [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:38:07 +0000

The test of all happiness is gratitude; and I felt grateful, though I hardly knew to whom. 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. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 46)

The Wonder of Green Apples and Rivers of Water [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 13:33:56 +0000

Boys like romantic tales; but babies like realistic tales–because they find them romantic… This proves that even nursery tales only echo an almost prenatal leap of interest and amazement. These tales say that apples were golden only to refresh the forgotten moment when we found that they were green. They make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water.
–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 45)

Give the Dead a Vote! [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:26:20 +0000

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.
–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p.39)

“And Then He Opened the Door… The End” [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:29:08 +0000

[W]e all like astonishing tales because they touch the nerve of the ancient instinct of astonishment. This is proved by the fact that when we are very young children we do not need fairy tales: we only need tales. Mere life is interesting enough. A child of seven is excited by being told that Tommy opened a door and saw a dragon. But a child of three is excited by being told that Tommy opened a door.
–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (pp. 44-45)

Claiming To Be Wise, They Became Fools [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:01:24 +0000

Thinking in isolation and with pride ends in being an idiot. Every man who will not have softening of the heart must at last have softening of the brain.
–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 34)

Cutting Off His Own Legs and Standing There Anyway [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 18:57:59 +0000

The man of this school goes first to a political meeting, where he complains that savages are treated as if they were beasts; then he takes his hat and umbrella and goes on to a scientific meeting, where he proves that they practically are beasts.
–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 33)

But A Little Thing Like Rank Inconsistency Never Stopped Anyone [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:54:29 +0000

But the new rebel is a skeptic, and will not entirely trust anything. He has no loyalty; therefore he can never be really a revolutionist. And the fact that he doubts everything really gets in his way when he wants to denounce anything. For all denunciation implies a moral doctrine of some kind; and the modern revolutionist doubts not only the institution he denounces, but the doctrine by which he denounces it.
–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 33)

Like a Hermit in the Desert [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:43:09 +0000

The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone made because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone.
–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (p. 22)

Lo and Behold, Some Things Do Change [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:51:38 +0000

Modern masters of science are much impressed with the need of beginning all inquiry with a fact. The ancient masters of religion were quite equally impressed with that necessity. They began with the fact of sin–a fact as practical as potatoes. Whether or no man could be washed in miraculous waters, there was no doubt at any rate that he wanted washing. But certain religious leaders in London, not mere materialists, have begun in our day not to deny the highly disputable water, but to deny the indisputable dirt.
–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (page 7)

The Key to Sanity: Permitting the Twilight [G.K. Chesterton]

joerigney — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:28:10 +0000

Mysticism keeps men sane. As long as you have mystery, you have health; when you destroy mystery you create morbidity. The ordinary man has always been sane because the ordinary man has always been a mystic. He has permitted the twilight. He has always had one foot in earth and the other in fairyland. He has always left himself free to doubt his gods; but (unlike the agnostic of today) free also to believe in them.
–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (page 20)

Life Is Not a Play About You [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:20:19 +0000

But how much happier you would be if you only knew that these people cared nothing about you! How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it; if you could really look at other men with common curiosity and pleasure; if you could see them walking as they are in their sunny selfishness and their virile indifference! You would begin to be interested in them, because they were not interested in you. You would break out of this tiny and tawdry theater in which your own little plot is always being played, and you would find yourself under a freer sky, in a street full of splendid strangers.
–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (page 13)

A Splitting Headache on an Infinite Sea [Wisdom from G.K.]

joerigney — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 12:03:59 +0000

The general fact is simple. Poetry is sane because it floats easily in an infinite sea; reason seeks to cross the infinite sea, and so make it finite. The result is mental exhaustion…The poet only desires exaltation and expansion, a world to stretch himself in. The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits.
–G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (page 10)