“All men are ordinary men; the extraordinary men are those who know it.”
G.K. Chesterton “Questions of Divorce” in Alvaro de Silva, ed., Brave New Family
“‘All the same,’ said the Scarecrow, ‘I shall ask for brains instead of a heart; for a fool would not know what to do with a heart if he had one.’ ‘I shall take the heart,’ returned the Tin Woodman; ‘for brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world.’”
L. Frank Baum The Wizard of Oz
“The best way to convince a fool that he is wrong is to let him have his own way.”
Josh Billings, quoted as “Thought du jour” in Globe & Mail May 17, 2001
“The workmanship surpassed the material…”
Apollo’s palace, decorated by Vulcan, described in the Phaeton story in Thomas Bulfinch, Mythology of Greece and Rome
“What is this life if, full of care,/ We have no time to stand and stare.”
“W.H. Davies (1871-1940) in Leisure”, quoted as “Thought du jour” in Social Studies in Globe & Mail November 11, 2008
“Wisdom has never really proved to be much help to anyone (nobody ever said: ‘I can’t open this jar of marmalade - you do it - you’re wiser than me’) and yet as we all get older, we would like to think we are acquiring wisdom. But why? Is it really wise to be wise? When the revolution comes, isn’t it always the wise who get the chop first? Perhaps it’s more sensible to be unwise.”
Miles Kington, quoted as one of two “Apercus du jour” in “Social Studies” in Globe & Mail May 20, 2008
"Talent does what it can; genius does what it must."
Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) [the guy who also said "the pen is mightier than the sword" and started a novel "It was a dark and stormy night"]
"The truth is that I care more for my dog, donkey, and garden in the little English village where we live than for all the publicity in the world."
Frances Chesterton (GKC's wife), "to an American reporter during one of G.K.’s lecture tours”, quoted by Therese Warmus in Gilbert Magazine Vol. 8 #4 (Jan.-Feb. 2005)