Words Worth Noting - July 24, 2026

“One of the main things that Chesterton says about Charles Dickens, whose work he so greatly appreciates, is that he represents ‘the conjunction of common sense with uncommon sensibility.’ Now, because of Jane Austen we regard ‘sense’ and ‘sensibility’ as opposites, but Chesterton says they are actually the same. ‘They both mean receptiveness or approachability by the facts outside us.’ Still, there is a ‘popular distinction between sensibility and sense, particularly in the form called common sense. Common sense is a sensibility duly distributed in all normal directions; sensibility has come to mean a specialized sensibility in one.’”

Dale Ahlquist in Gilbert! The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 27 #5 (May/June 2024)