The Quotation Tag--Day 3

Here I am again! I was tagged for the Quotation Tag by Rachel at Hamlette's Soliloquy. Thanks, Rachel! Now it's time for Day 3.

Once again, the rules:

Thank the person who nominated you 
Nominate 3 new bloggers every day 
Post a new quotation every day for 3 consecutive days. 

Today, I'm continuing my theme of quotations by G.K. Chesterton, because there are just too many good ones to share.


The first quote is from his book of apologetics, Orthodoxy, and specifically from the chapter "The Ethics of Elfland", in which he outlines how fairy tales affect his understanding of the universe. Follow the link to read the whole thing, but I'll just share a lovely bit explaining the sense of wonder that fairy tales invoke.

 This is proved by the fact that when we are very young children we do not need fairy tales: we only need tales. Mere life is interesting enough. A child of seven is excited by being told that Tommy opened a door and saw a dragon. But a child of three is excited by being told that Tommy opened a door. Boys like romantic tales; but babies like realistic tales—because they find them romantic. In fact, a baby is about the only person, I should think, to whom a modern realistic novel could be read without boring him. This proves that even nursery tales only echo an almost pre-natal leap of interest and amazement. These tales say that apples were golden only to refresh the forgotten moment when we found that they were green. They make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water.

I wanted to pay tribute to Chesterton's devotion to his wife, Frances, because by all accounts, theirs was a wonderful romance. This is a stanza from the introduction to his epic poem, "The Ballad of the White Horse", in which he dedicates the work to her.

O go you onward; where you are
Shall honour and laughter be, 
Past purpled pavilion and pearled foam, 
God's winged pavilion free to roam,
Your face, that is a wandering home, 
A flying home for me.  

The last quote is from his wonderful novel, Manalive, in which a London boarding house is turned upside down by the arrival of the enormous, energetic and optimistic Innocent Smith. In this scene, two characters are discussing how their environment and temperament keep them in a mundane, unremarkable pattern of life. The final line of dialogue is short and basic, but I find it deeply inspiring. I want this as a motto. I want it on inspirational posters or stitched on a sampler.

"Let us go and do some of these things we can't do."

And thus ends the quotation meme. Not tagging anyone particularly. Play along if you'd like to. And if anyone wants to discuss Chesterton in the comments, or just share quotes from any author or source that you feel like sharing, don't be shy. 

Comments

  1. I need to read more Chesterton, and that's all there is to it!!!

    ReplyDelete

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