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| G.K. Chesterton |
I
don’t need to introduce Gilbert Keith Chesterton. Everybody knows him. Or everybody
should know him. Everyone has read him. Or everyone should read him. Chesterton
is one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century, but sometimes he
seems to speak for the 21st. To prove it, I have chosen some of his quotes. A
few are well known, others less so. Let Chesterton speak for himself:
“Progress” is a
useless word; for progress takes for granted an already defined direction; and
it is exactly about the direction that we disagree. (The works of Charles Dickens, ch. 8, 1911)
The whole modern
world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of
Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is
to prevent the mistakes from being corrected. (The blunders of our parties, Illustrated
London News, 1924)
We do not need a
censorship of the press. We have a censorship by the press. (Orthodoxy, chapter 7, 1908)
If you
attempt an actual argument with a modern paper of opposite politics, you will
have no answer except slanging or silence. (What's
Wrong With The World, part 1, ch. 3, 1910)
The tragedy of the
modern woman is not that she is not allowed to follow man, but that she follows
him far too slavishly. (The
Victorian Era in Literature, ch. 2, 1913)
It is idle to talk
always of the alternative of reason and faith. Reason is itself a matter of
faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality
at all. (Orthodoxy, ch.3,
1908)
The modern world is
filled with men who hold dogmas so strongly that they do not even know that
they are dogmas.
(Heretics, ch. 20, 1905)
Most modern freedom
is at root fear. It is not so much that we are too bold to endure rules; it is
rather that we are too timid to endure responsibilities. (What's Wrong With the World, part 4, ch.6,
1910). See my post Plans,
forecasts and estimations in this blog for E.F. Schumacher’s view on this
question.
The old parental
authority [will be replaced] by the far more sweeping and destructive authority
of the State. (Illustrated
London News, 24 Nov. 1928)
Many a school
boasts of having the last ideas on education, when it has not even the first
idea. (What's Wrong With
the World, part 4, ch. 6, 1910)
If individuals have
any hope of protecting their freedom, they must protect their family life. (The well & the shallows, "St. Thomas
More", 1935)
To have a right to do a thing is
not at all the same as to be right in doing it. (A
Short History of England, ch. 10, 1917)
Men are ruled, at this minute by
the clock, by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern. (Utopia of Usurers and Other Essays, The New Name, 1917)
As this
is a popular science blog, I will add a few more quotes, somewhat related to
science:
Man is not merely
an evolution but rather a revolution. (The Everlasting man, Part 1, ch. 1, 1925). See my post Is man
just an animal? in this blog.
It is absurd to say
that you are advancing freedom when you only use free thought to destroy free
will. (Orthodoxy, ch. 7,
1908). See my post On
intelligence in this blog.
There had begun
that easy automatic habit, of science as an oiled and smooth-running machine,
that habit of treating things as obviously unquestionable, when, indeed, they
are obviously questionable.
(The Victorian Era in Literature, ch. 4, 1913) See my post What’s
a scientific theory in this blog.
Suppose something
of the type of... contraception really stalks through the modern State, leading
the march of human progress through abortion to infanticide... One of the chief
features of the state of Peace we now enjoy is the killing of a considerable
number of harmless human beings. (The well & the shallows, "Where is the paradox" and
“Killing the nerve”, 1935) See my post This
is what science says about human life in this blog.
Frank
Sheed said this about Chesterton:
When a man is as
right as that in his forecasts, there is some reason to think he may be right
in his premises.
A fully scientific conclusion.The same post in Spanish
Thematic Thread on Politics and Economy: Previous Next
Manuel Alfonseca
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