“I came to the conclusion that the optimist thought everything good except the pessimist, and that the pessimist thought everything bad, except himself.”
– G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, chapter 5
Posts Tagged as ‘G.K. Chesterton’
June 27, 2007
G.K. Chesterton on Optimism and Pessimism
June 27, 2007
G.K. Chesterton on Tradition
“It is obvious that tradition is only democracy extended through time. It is trusting to a consensus of common human voices rather than to some isolated or arbitrary record… 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 [...]
June 27, 2007
G.K. Chesterton on Democracy
“…the democratic faith is this: that the most terribly important things must be left to ordinary men themselves–the mating of the sexes, the rearing of the young, the laws of the state. This is democracy; and in this I have always believed.”
– G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, chapter 4
June 27, 2007
G.K. Chesterton on Democracy
“This is the first principle of democracy: that the essential things in men are the things they hold in common, not the things they hold separately. And the second principle is merely this: that the political instinct or desire is one of these things which they hold in common.”
– G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, chapter 4
June 27, 2007
G.K. Chesterton on Pride
“Complete self-confidence is not merely a sin; complete self-confidence is a weakness. Believing utterly in one’s self is a hysterical and superstitious belief…”
– G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, Chapter 2
June 27, 2007
G.K. Chesterton on Pride
“Thinking in isolation and with pride ends in being an idiot. Every man who will not have a softening of the heart must at last have softening of the brain.”
– G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, chapter 3
