G.K. Chesterton Quote
We must have several word-signs, said Syme seriously -- words that we are likely to want, fine shades of meaning. My favourite word is 'coeval.' What's yours?Do stop playing the goat, said the Professor plaintively. You don't know how serious this is.'Lush,' too, said Syme, shaking his head sagaciously, we must have ' lush' -- word applied to grass, don't you know?Do you imagine, asked the Professor furiously, that we are going to talk to Dr. Bull about grass?There are several ways in which the subject could be approached, said Syme reflectively, and the word introduced without appearing forced. We might say, ' Dr. Bull, as a revolutionist, you remember that a tyrant once advised us to eat grass; and indeed many of us, looking on the fresh lush grass of summer--'Do you understand, said the other, that this is a tragedy?Perfectly, replied Syme; always be comic in a tragedy. What the deuce else can you do? I wish this language of yours had a wider scope. I suppose we could not extend it from the fingers to the toes? That would involve pulling off our boots and socks during the conversation, which however unobtrusively performed -- Syme, said his friend with a stern simplicity, go to bed!
We must have several word-signs, said Syme seriously -- words that we are likely to want, fine shades of meaning. My favourite word is 'coeval.' What's yours?Do stop playing the goat, said the Professor plaintively. You don't know how serious this is.'Lush,' too, said Syme, shaking his head sagaciously, we must have ' lush' -- word applied to grass, don't you know?Do you imagine, asked the Professor furiously, that we are going to talk to Dr. Bull about grass?There are several ways in which the subject could be approached, said Syme reflectively, and the word introduced without appearing forced. We might say, ' Dr. Bull, as a revolutionist, you remember that a tyrant once advised us to eat grass; and indeed many of us, looking on the fresh lush grass of summer--'Do you understand, said the other, that this is a tragedy?Perfectly, replied Syme; always be comic in a tragedy. What the deuce else can you do? I wish this language of yours had a wider scope. I suppose we could not extend it from the fingers to the toes? That would involve pulling off our boots and socks during the conversation, which however unobtrusively performed -- Syme, said his friend with a stern simplicity, go to bed!
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About G.K. Chesterton
Chesterton created the fictional priest-detective Father Brown, and wrote on apologetics. Even some of those who disagree with him have recognised the wide appeal of such works as Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man. Chesterton routinely referred to himself as an orthodox Christian, and came to identify this position more and more with Catholicism, eventually converting from high church Anglicanism. Biographers have identified him as a successor to such Victorian authors as Matthew Arnold, Thomas Carlyle, John Henry Newman and John Ruskin.
He has been referred to as the "prince of paradox". Of his writing style, Time observed: "Whenever possible, Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories—first carefully turning them inside out." His writings were an influence on Jorge Luis Borges, who compared his work with that of Edgar Allan Poe.