Virtue is not the absence of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate thing, like pain or a particular smell. Mercy does not mean not being cruel or sparing people revenge or punishment; it means a plain and positive thing like the sun, which one has either seen or not see.
Weitere Zitate von G.K. Chesterton
Zum Autor"Once men sang together round a table in chorus; now one man sings alone, for the absurd reason that he can sing better. If our civilization goes on like this, only one man will laugh, because he can laugh better than the rest."
"Strike a glass and it will not endure an instant. Simply do not strike it and it will endure a thousand years."
"Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese."
"Modern intelligence won't accept anything on authority. But it will accept anything without authority."
"Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom. I am not, as will be seen, in any sense attacking logic: I only say that this danger does lie in logic, not in imagination."
"Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist."