Buy it from Amazon
| First Written | 1920 |
| Genre | Travel |
| Origin | UK |
| My Copy | kindle edition |
| First Read | May 14, 2024 |
The New Jerusalem
Just started this - a lesser Chesterton, discursing in his rambly way about a trip to Palestine in 1919? 1920? I don't think I've gotten to his thesis yet. But he's as quotable as ever, to his detriment. Thus far it's very much 'I'm trying to write the cleverest line I can think of' for 50 pages.
Noted on May 14, 2024
It is really not so repulsive to see the poor asking for money as to see the rich asking for more money. And advertisement is the rich asking for more money. A man would be annoyed if he found himself in a mob of millionaires, all holding out their silk hats for a penny.
Quoted on May 14, 2024
It is a complete mistake to suppose that common people make our towns commonplace, with unsightly things like advertisements. Most of those whose wares are thus placarded everywhere are very wealthy gentlemen with coronets and country seats, men who are probably very particular about the artistic adornment of their own homes. They disfigure their towns in order to decorate their houses.
Quoted on May 14, 2024
The Crusaders and the Saracens constantly copied each other while they combated each other; indeed it is a fact always to be found in such combats. It is one of the arguments against war that are really human, and therefore are never used by humanitarians. The curse of war is that it does lead to more international imitation; while in peace and freedom men can afford to have national variety.
Quoted on May 14, 2024
There is above all this supreme stamp of the barbarian; the sacrifice of the permanent to the temporary.
Quoted on May 14, 2024
In the East it is the male who is dignified and even ceremonial. Possibly that is why he wears skirts. I pointed out long ago that petticoats, which some regard as a garb of humiliation for women are really regarded as the only garb of magnificence for men, when they wish to be something more than men. They are worn by kings, by priests, and by judges.
Quoted on May 14, 2024
Bolshevism is a movement; and in my opinion a very natural and just movement considered as a revolt against the crude cruelty of Capitalism. But when we find the Bolshevists making a rule that the drama "must encourage the proletarian spirit," it is obvious that those who say so are not only maniacs but, what is more to the point here, are monomaniacs.
Quoted on May 14, 2024
He scampers all over the field when it is necessary to catch him, and stands still when it is really urgent to drive him. He also breaks fences, eats vegetables, and fulfills other functions; between delays and destructions he could ruin a really poor man in a day. I wish this fact were more often remembered, in judging whether really poor men have really been cruel to donkeys.
Quoted on May 14, 2024
The modern world is full of fantastic forms of animal worship; a religion generally accompanied with human sacrifice. Yet we hear strangely little of the real merits of animals; and one of them surely is this innocence of all boredom; perhaps such simplicity is the absence of sin.
Quoted on May 14, 2024