The Swing of the Pendulum
March 1, 2007
“The whole curse of the last century has been what is called the Swing of the Pendulum; that is, the idea that Man must go alternately from one extreme to the other. It is a shameful and even shocking fancy; it is the denial of the whole dignity of mankind. When Man is alive he stands still. It is only when he is dead that he swings.”
G. K. Chesterton, “The New House” Alarms and Discursions
Swimming Upstream
February 28, 2007
“A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.”
G. K. Chesterton, “The Five Deaths of the Faith” The Everlasting Man
Big Words
February 21, 2007
“Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very”; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.”
C. S. Lewis
Path of Wisdom
January 30, 2007
“He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.”
J. R.R. Tolkien, Spoken by Gandalf
Treasure Snatched Away
January 23, 2007
“Their Oath shall drive them, and yet betray them, and ever snatch away the very treasures that they have sworn to pursue.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892 – 1973), Mandos, The Silmarillion, Of the Flight of the Noldor
Fashionable Fallacies
January 19, 2007
“Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.”
G. K. Chesterton