"..And in the darkest of the books of God there is written a truth that is also a riddle. It is of the new things that men tire...of fashions and proposals and improvements and change. It is the old things that startle and intoxicate. It is the old things that are young. There is no sceptic who does not feel that many have doubted before. There is no rich and fickle man who does not feel that all his novelties are ancient. There is no worshipper of change who does not feel upon his neck the vast weight of the weariness of the universe. But we who do the old things are fed by nature with a perpetual infancy. No man who is in love thinks that any one has been in love before. No woman who has a child thinks that there have been such things as children. No people that fight for their own city are haunted with the burden of the broken empires. Yes, oh dark voice, the world is always the same, for it is always unexpected."
-The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904)
2 comments:
I recently read Napoleon of Notting Hill, and loved it (as I do everything I've ever read of Chesterton's)!!! I love the quotation!
Audrey
It's a great novel, and I hope to re-read it soon. :-) How much have you read of Chesterton's?
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