It never occurred to him to be spiritually won over to the enemy. Many moderns, inured to a weak worship of intellect and force, might have wavered in their allegiance under this oppression of a great personality. . . . But this was a kind of modern meanness to which Syme could not sink even in his extreme morbidity. Like any man, he was coward enough to fear great force; but he was not coward enough to admire it.
Gilbert K. ChestertonNine times out of ten it is the coarse word that condemns an evil, and the refined word that excuses it.
Gilbert K. ChestertonWhat life and death may be to a turkey is not my business; but the soul of Scrooge and the body of Cratchit are my business.
Gilbert K. ChestertonOver-civilization and barbarism are within an inch of each other. And a mark of both is the power of medicine-men.
Gilbert K. ChestertonLiterature and fiction are two entirely different things. Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.
Gilbert K. ChestertonI would not say that old men grow wise, for men never grow wise; and many old men retain a very attractive childishness and cheerful innocence. Elderly people are often much more romantic than younger people, and sometimes even more adventurous, having begun to realize how many things they do not know.
Gilbert K. Chesterton