“ There cannot be any better proof of the physical efficiency of a man than that he talks cheerfully of a journey to the end of the world. ”
G. K. Chesterton, Heretics (1905). copy citation
Author | G. K. Chesterton |
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Source | Heretics |
Topic | efficiency journey |
Date | 1905 |
Language | English |
Reference | |
Note | |
Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/470/470-h/470-h.htm |
Context
“When everything about a people is for the time growing weak and ineffective, it begins to talk about efficiency. So it is that when a man's body is a wreck he begins, for the first time, to talk about health. Vigorous organisms talk not about their processes, but about their aims. There cannot be any better proof of the physical efficiency of a man than that he talks cheerfully of a journey to the end of the world. And there cannot be any better proof of the practical efficiency of a nation than that it talks constantly of a journey to the end of the world, a journey to the Judgment Day and the New Jerusalem. There can be no stronger sign of a coarse material health than the tendency to run after high and wild ideals;”
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