Brown Paper and White Chalk: GK Chesterton

Months ago I made a list of authors that I wanted to commit to reading. On that list was GK Chesterton, who is seen by many as a sort of Catholic C.S. Lewis. Like Lewis, he wrote in numerous genres and on many subjects. Perhaps his most famous work is The Man Who Was Thursday, a crime drama heavy in Christian allegory. Among his more famous quotes is the following on political parties:

The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected.

So, while I have yet to read The Man Who Was Thursday, I was delighted to find an excerpt from his essay A Piece of Chalk in my inbox this morning. I highly recommend reading the Pakistan Daily Times excerpt, which in six short paragraphs shows Chesterton using art, imagery, and wit to arrive at the following summary statement:

Virtue is not the absence of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate thing, like pain or a particular smell. Mercy does not mean not being cruel, or sparing people revenge or punishment; it means a plain and positive thing like the sun, which one has either seen or not seen.