20 March 2018

20 March, A Chesterton Calendar

MARCH 20th

I have no sympathy with international aggression when it is taken seriously, but I have a certain dark and wild sympathy with it when it is quite absurd. Raids are all wrong as practical politics, but they are human and imaginable as practical jokes. In fact, almost any act of ragging or violence can be forgiven on this strict condition— that it is of no use at all to anybody. If the aggression gets anything out of it, then it is quite unpardonable. It is damned by the least hint of utility or profit. A man of spirit and breeding may brawl, but he does not steal. A gentleman knocks off his friend’s hat, but he does not annex his friend’s hat.

‘All Things Considered.’

Chesterton, G. K.. The G. K. Chesterton Collection [50 Books] (Kindle Locations 43801-43807). Catholic Way Publishing. Kindle Edition.


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