“We are incessantly told that past periods were very bad; and I cheerfully agree that they must have been most horribly bad, if they were really worse than the period we are asked to praise.”
G.K. Chesterton in G.K.’s Weekly January 18, 1930 quoted in “Chesterton for Today” in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 27 #3 (Jan.-Feb. 2024)
“The man who says there are no sexes or no nations fares simply and precisely like the man who says there are no chairs and tables. He falls over them.”
G.K. Chesterton in Illustrated London News November 8, 1913 quoted in “Chesterton for Today” in Gilbert! The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 27 #4 (March/April 2024) [and yes, he gave this warning over a century ago, yet again proving eerily prescient]
“For forms of government let fools contest:/ Whate’er is best administer’d is best:/ For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight;/ His can’t be wrong whose life is in the right;/ In faith and hope the world will disagree,/ But all mankind’s concern is charity:/ All must be false that thwart this one great end,/ And all of God that bless mankind or mend.”
Alexander Pope “Essay on Man”
“I often hear that it’s hard to know the right thing to do. No, it’s not! You always know what’s right, but sometimes it’s just very hard to do it. It’s hard because you may have to admit failure. It’s hard because the right decision may affect your friends and colleagues. It’s hard because you may not personally benefit from doing what’s right. Yeah, it’s hard. That’s called leadership. Having a set of moral principles and being a person of integrity are the most important virtues for any leader. In the simplest terms it follows the West Point Honor Code: Don’t lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those that do. This means be honest with your work force, your customers, and the public. Be fair in your business dealings. Follow the golden rule: Treat others as you would have others treat you. If this sounds a bit Pollyannaish or like you’re in Sunday School, so be it. Being a person of high integrity is what separates the great leaders from the commonplace.”
William H. McRaven The Wisdom of the Bullfrog
“A society is in decay, final or transitional, when common sense has really become very uncommon. Straightforward ideas appear strange and unfamiliar, and any thought that does not follow the conventional curve or twist, is supposed to be a sort of joke.”
G.K. Chesterton in G.K.’s Weekly November 2, 1933 quoted in “Chesterton for Today” in Gilbert! The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 27 #4 (March/April 2024)
“Why is it that so many people only want to make a case for the negative badness, not only of a bad thing, but of all things as being bad? The present generation has had more pleasure and enjoyment than any previous generation. Is that the right way of stating the riddle? Or is that the answer?”
G.K. Chesterton in Illustrated London News February 18, 1933, quoted in “Why Do You Keep Asking Me Rhetorical Questions?” in Gilbert! The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 27 #5 (May/June 2024)
“Children are simply human beings who are allowed to do what everyone else really desires to do, as for instance, to fly kites or when seriously wronged to emit prolonged screams for several minutes.”
G.K. Chesterton quoted without further attribution in an illustrated panel in Gilbert! The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 27 #5 (May/June 2024)
“Though steeped in Chesterton, Father Boyd was not a rollicking figure. Tall and thin, and giving the initial impression of being almost dour, he would provide a pleasant shock when he told a joke, and, like Chesterton, laugh at it himself. He had an awkward and stuttering style of speaking, yet he would draw you in with profound thinking, dropping down thought-provoking lines in the manner of the man he was invoking. For example: ‘Chesterton never writes about religion so much as when he is writing about something else.’ As if to personally confirm that insight, Chesterton himself says: ‘Philosophy is not expressed when people are talking about philosophy, but when they are talking about anything else.’”
Dale Ahlquist in Gilbert! The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 27 #4 (March/April 2024) [Father Boyd is Ian Boyd, CSB, who just passed away]