“ The idea that surroundings will mold a man is always mixed up with the totally different idea that they will mold him in one particular way. ”
G. K. Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World (1910). copy citation
Author | G. K. Chesterton |
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Source | What's Wrong with the World |
Topic | mix ideas |
Date | 1910 |
Language | English |
Reference | |
Note | |
Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1717/1717-h/1717-h.htm |
Context
“I will not needlessly complicate this question by urging at length that environment also is open to some of the objections and hesitations which paralyze the employment of heredity. I will merely suggest in passing that even about the effect of environment modern people talk much too cheerfully and cheaply. The idea that surroundings will mold a man is always mixed up with the totally different idea that they will mold him in one particular way. To take the broadest case, landscape no doubt affects the soul; but how it affects it is quite another matter. To be born among pine-trees might mean loving pine-trees. It might mean loathing pine-trees.”
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