G.K. Chesterton remains a master of the aphorism. Much of his journalism died with him, or even before him. His books survive because of their insights into religious faith, like Orthodoxy or The Everlasting Man, or because his work is the beneficiary of a society devoted to his memory and his writing. Surely one of the reasons Chestertonians remain enamored of this writer has to do with his wit and his skill in turning a phrase.
It was Chesterton who wrote “Do not be so open-minded that your brains fall out,” “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front him, but because he loves what is behind him,” and “There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people.” Some writers have a talent for creating an aphorism that sticks, and Chesterton was one of the princes of that court.
It was Chesterton who wrote “Do not be so open-minded that your brains fall out,” “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front him, but because he loves what is behind him,” and “There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people.” Some writers have a talent for creating an aphorism that sticks, and Chesterton was one of the princes of that court.
In his monumental The Story Of Civilization, Will Durant demonstrates that he too belongs in that royal company of phrasemakers. As I have wended my through Our Oriental Heritage, the first of eleven volumes in this series, my yellow marker has left its paint on one pithy observation after another. Some are slyly humorous; some could be labeled as guidelines to rule and leadership, whether the governed constitute a kingdom or simply the self; some are like punches of truth to the forehead.
I have begun collecting these sayings, wondering, like a child picking up shells on a beach, what I might eventually do with them. Here are a few samples for your enjoyment:
…power, like taxes, succeeds best when it is invisible and indirect.
Liberty is a luxury of security; the free individual is a product and a mark of civilization.
There is no record of women objecting to marriage by purchase; on the contrary, they took keen pride in the sums paid for them, and scorned the woman who gave herself in a marriage without a price; they believed that in a “love-match” the villainous male was getting too much for nothing.
Where food is dear life is cheap.
…religion arises not out of sacerdotal invention or chicanery, but out of the persistent wonder, fear, insecurity, hopefulness, and loneliness of men.
When—apparently after some time—the idea of twelve was reached, the number became a favorite because it was so pleasantly divisible by five of the first six digits; and that duodecimal system was born which obstinately survives in English measurement today: twelve months in a year, twelve shillings in a pound, twelve units in a dozen, twelve dozen in a gross, twelve inches in a foot. Thirteen, on the other hand, refused to be divided, and became disreputable and unlucky forever.
…the natives of Gippsland believed that one who died without a nose-ring would suffer horrible torments in the next life.
Primitive men equaled modern men in vanity, incredible as this will seem to women.
The first source of art…lies in the desire to adorn and beautify the body.
Surely there is nothing new under the sun; and the difference between the first woman and the last could pass through the eye of a needle. (Durant on Sumerian jewelry)
The government of the Pharaohs resembled that of Napoleon, even to the incest.
…an empire exists only so long as it retains its superior capacity to kill.
The intellectual man is a danger to the state because he thinks in terms of regulations and laws; he wishes to construct a society like geometry, and does not realize that such regulation destroys the living freedom and vigor of the parts.
…it is one of the most culpable oversights of nature that virtue and beauty so often come in separate packages.
I have begun collecting these sayings, wondering, like a child picking up shells on a beach, what I might eventually do with them. Here are a few samples for your enjoyment:
…power, like taxes, succeeds best when it is invisible and indirect.
Liberty is a luxury of security; the free individual is a product and a mark of civilization.
There is no record of women objecting to marriage by purchase; on the contrary, they took keen pride in the sums paid for them, and scorned the woman who gave herself in a marriage without a price; they believed that in a “love-match” the villainous male was getting too much for nothing.
Where food is dear life is cheap.
…religion arises not out of sacerdotal invention or chicanery, but out of the persistent wonder, fear, insecurity, hopefulness, and loneliness of men.
When—apparently after some time—the idea of twelve was reached, the number became a favorite because it was so pleasantly divisible by five of the first six digits; and that duodecimal system was born which obstinately survives in English measurement today: twelve months in a year, twelve shillings in a pound, twelve units in a dozen, twelve dozen in a gross, twelve inches in a foot. Thirteen, on the other hand, refused to be divided, and became disreputable and unlucky forever.
…the natives of Gippsland believed that one who died without a nose-ring would suffer horrible torments in the next life.
Primitive men equaled modern men in vanity, incredible as this will seem to women.
The first source of art…lies in the desire to adorn and beautify the body.
Surely there is nothing new under the sun; and the difference between the first woman and the last could pass through the eye of a needle. (Durant on Sumerian jewelry)
The government of the Pharaohs resembled that of Napoleon, even to the incest.
…an empire exists only so long as it retains its superior capacity to kill.
The intellectual man is a danger to the state because he thinks in terms of regulations and laws; he wishes to construct a society like geometry, and does not realize that such regulation destroys the living freedom and vigor of the parts.
…it is one of the most culpable oversights of nature that virtue and beauty so often come in separate packages.
RSS Feed