Friday 15 June 2007

Chesterton and the art of language

I feel proud for my love of Chesterton. Here is what I read recently…

“A man who loves all men enough to use them rightly is a democrat. A man who loves all words enough to use them rightly is a stylist. Style comes out, as the fraternal human sentiment comes out, pre eminently and most definitely in dealing with coarse or everyday things.
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Good style treats verbs and particles as good manners treats chairs and tables, easily but in the proper way. There is no such thing as being a gentle man at the important moments; it is at unimportant moments that a man is a gentleman. At important moments he ought to be something better.”


(G.K Chesterton on ‘The style of Newman’ from “A handful of Authors”)

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