Words Worth Noting - February 9, 2026

“No theories and no pedantic statistics will ever prevent ordinary people from finding a meaning and a literature in their own lives: great tragedy when the baby dies; great comedy when the baby tries to eat the soap. We always take ourselves seriously; it is only learned men, in huge books, who take us frivolously, and make us feel like a swarm of flies.”

G.K. Chesterton in London Opinion April 2 1904, quoted in “Statistics” in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 28 #6 (July/August 2025)