Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Summary

Portrait of Gilbert Keith Chesterton Gilbert Keith Chesterton George Bernard Shaw — The Problem of a Preface (1910)

But the truth is that the very rapidity of such a man's mind makes him seem slow in getting to the point. It is positively because he is quick-witted that he is long-winded. A quick eye for ideas may actually make a writer slow in reaching his goal, just as a quick eye for landscapes might make a motorist slow in reaching Brighton.
Source: Wikisource

Portrait of Gilbert Keith Chesterton Gilbert Keith Chesterton George Bernard Shaw — The Problem of a Preface (1910)

An original man has to pause at every allusion or simile to re-explain historical parallels, to re-shape distorted words. Any ordinary leader-writer (let us say) might write swiftly and smoothly something like this: "The element of religion in the Puritan rebellion, if hostile to art, yet saved the movement from some of the evils in which the French Revolution involved morality." Now a man like Mr. Shaw, who has his own views on everything, would be forced to make the sentence long and broken instead of swift and smooth.
Source: Wikisource

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