Words Worth Noting - December 16, 2025

“as G.K. Chesterton observes, ‘When we do translate things into English, they often only serve as a luminous argument for leaving them in Latin. Latin is Latin, and always says exactly what it means.’ While Latin was commonly taught to every school boy and girl in Mr. Chesterton’s day, alas it is no longer.”

Thomas Finke reviewing a translation of St. Augustine in Gilbert: the Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 28 #3 (Jan./Feb. 2025)

Words Worth Noting - December 15, 2025

“Romances are more real than realistic novels, for various reasons, which all should easily perceive. For one thing, romance describes how ordinary people find life exciting. Whereas realistic fiction describes how odd or extraordinary people find life dull.”

G.K. Chesterton in The New York American reprinted in Gilbert: the Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 28 #3 (Jan./Feb. 2025)

Words Worth Noting - December 14, 2025

“There can be such a thing as a Waste of Time; but there could not be such a thing as a Waste of Eternity. So I suppose that the archangels read snippets and novelettes with a godlike innocence and pleasure.”

G.K. Chesterton in London Opinion April 2, 1904, quoted in “Waste” in Gilbert: the Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 28 #3 (Jan./Feb. 2025)

Words Worth Noting - December 12, 2025

“A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. We are on the road to producing a race of men too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table.”

G.K. Chesterton in Orthodoxy as header quotation on Tyler Blanski’s “My Name is Lazarus” conversion story in Gilbert: the Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 28 #4 (March/April 2025)