Strength is the great weakness of politicians. They are haunted by the decayed Carlylean fancy that a nation in peril must be saved by a Great Man; and each of them is always trying to prove that he was the Great Man and all his colleagues were impiously blind to the fact. They are wrong from the very root. A great nation in peril is saved by a great nation, or it is not saved at all [...] Here is the great snare for statesmen. And we....must warn them against this great temptation. They must be cured of being strong men. They must be saved from saving the State. Serving the State is all that is asked of them, and this they are quite competent to do.
-November 27, 1915, Illustrated London News
[I would only add that the population itself must not look for any politician to "save the nation", either, which we almost invariably see by all sides in any Presidential election, for instance, unfortunately....Or, in other words, to quote the words of Scripture, "Put not your trust in princes."]
2 comments:
I think this is a glimpse of a bit of his mentality, perhaps, in writing The Napoleon of Notting Hill, which is in a sense my favorite of GKC.. I am reluctant to declare an unchangeable winner because, of course, I have not ready everything by him (yet, I hope).
Love this blog - saw the link on Facebook from ACS. I have quite a few GKC quotes memorized and there always seems to be situations where they are appropriate. Glad you found the Church - or that she found you - and also GKC. :D
Best,
~Nzie
:-) If you ever read everything by GKC, that would be quite an achievement. :-)
Thank-you! Yes, he does seem to have a quote for every occasion.
Thanks! :-)
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