A blog dedicated to providing quotes by and posts relating to one of the most influential (and quotable!) authors of the twentieth century, G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936). If you do not know much about GKC, I suggest visiting the webpage of the American Chesterton Society as well as this wonderful Chesterton Facebook Page by a fellow Chestertonian

I also have created a list detailing examples of the influence of Chesterton if you are interested, that I work on from time to time.

(Moreover, for a list of short GKC quotes, I have created one here, citing the sources)

"...Stevenson had found that the secret of life lies in laughter and humility."

-Heretics (1905)
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Saturday, April 9, 2011

"This man has insulted me!"

"This man has insulted me!" said Syme, with gestures of explanation.

"Insulted you?" cried the gentleman with the red rosette, "When?"

"Oh, just now," said Syme recklessly."He insulted my mother."

"Insulted your mother!" exclaimed the gentleman incredulously.

"Well, anyhow," said Syme, conceding a point, "my aunt."

"But how can the Marquis have insulted your aunt just now?" said the second gentleman with some legitimate wonder. "He has been sitting here all the time."

"Ah, it was what he said!" said Syme darkly.

"I said nothing at all," said the Marquis, "except something about the band. I only said that I liked Wagner played well."

"It was an allusion to my family," said Syme firmly. "My aunt played Wagner badly. It was a painful subject. We are always being insulted about it."

"This seems most extraordinary," said the gentleman who was decoré, looking doubtfully at the Marquis.

"Oh, I assure you," said Syme earnestly, "the whole of your conversation was simply packed with sinister allusions to my aunt’s weaknesses."

"This is nonsense!" said the second gentleman. "I for one have said nothing for half an hour except that I liked the singing of that girl with black hair."

"Well, there you are again!" said Syme indignantly. "My aunt’s was red."

"It seems to me," said the other, "that you are simply seeking a pretext to insult the Marquis."

"By George!" said Syme, facing round and looking at him, "what a clever chap you are!"

-The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare (1908)

6 comments:

Alyssa said...

Hahaha! Makes me want to read the whole book! :))

Mike said...

It is my favorite novel! I would highly suggest reading it. :-)

Here is a link to it online, in case you're interested.

(And afterwards, you could also listen to Orson Welles' 1938 radio adaptation of it which aired just a couple of months before his infamous "War of the Worlds" broadcast.)

Alyssa said...

Oh wow! Thanks! I didn't know they had one online. I'll read it! :)) And I'll see if I can find the radio adaptation. :))

Mike said...

You can find a lot of Chesterton's books online at this website (as well as the radio adaptation of The Man Who Was Thursday).

http://www.gkc.org.uk/gkc/books/index.html

Mike said...

This website :-)

Alyssa said...

Thank you so much! :))