“fairyland is nothing but the sunny country of common sense”

gk chesterton: easily my favorite author. i’m reading orthodoxy now and i love the man who was Thursday. he inspired cs lewis and the others in his league. from orthodoxy:

“the love of a hero is more terrible than the hatred of a tyrant. the hatred of a hero is more generous than the love of a philanthropist. there is a huge and heroic sanity of which moderns can only collect the fragments. there is a giant of whom we see only the lopped arms and legs walking about. they have torn the soul of Christ into silly strips, labeled egoism and altruism, and they are equally puzzled by His insane magnificence and His insane meekness. they have parted His garments among them, and for His vesture they have cast lots; though the coat was without seam woven from the top throughout.”

“the point is that this world is not too sad to love or too glad not to love; the point is that when you do love a thing, its gladness is a reason for loving it, and its sadness a reason for loving it all the more.”

“let us suppose we are confronted with a desperate thing – say pimlico. if we think what is really best for pimlico we shall find the thread of thought leads to the throne or the mystic and the arbitrary. it is not enough for a man to disapprove of pimlico: in that case he will merely cut his throat or move to chelsea. nor, certainly, is it enough for a man to approve of pimlico: for then it will remain pimlico, which would be awful. the only way out of it seems to be for somebody to love pimlico: to love it with a transcendental tie and without any earthly reason. if there arose a man who loved pimlico, then pimlico would rise into ivory towers and golden pinnacles; pimlico would attire herself as a woman does when she is loved. for decoration is not given to hide horrible things: but to decorate things already adorable. a mother does not give her child a blue bow because he is so ugly without it. a lover does not give a girl a necklace to hide her neck. if men loved pimlico as mothers love children, arbitrarily, because it is theirs, pimlico in a year or two might be fairer than florence. some readers will say that this is mere fantasy. i answer that this is the actual history of mankind. this, as a civilization and you will find them knotted round some sacred stone afterwards gained glory for it. men did not love rome because she was great. she was great because they had loved her.