GK Chesterton Quote Day!

I don't know if very many of you know who GK Chesterton is, but please read these quotes. They are very true and/or very funny.

• Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.

• "My country, right or wrong," is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, "My mother, drunk or sober."

• A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

• A room without books is like a body without a soul.

• An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered.

• Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere.

• By a curious confusion, many modern critics have passed from the proposition that a masterpiece may be unpopular to the other proposition that unless it is unpopular it cannot be a masterpiece.

• Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up.

• Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.

• I believe in getting into hot water; it keeps you clean.

• I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.

• I say that a man must be certain of his morality for the simple reason that he has to suffer for it.

• If there were no God, there would be no Atheists.

• It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong.

• Journalism largely consists of saying 'Lord Jones is Dead' to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive.

• Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.

• The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.

• The thing I hate about an argument is that it always interrupts a discussion.

• There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and the tired man who wants a book to read.

• To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.

• There are no wise few. Every aristocracy that has ever existed has behaved, in all essential points, exactly like a small mob. -G. K. Chesterton, "Heretics", 1905

• All slang is a metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry. -G. K. Chesterton, Defendant (1901)

• Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity. -G. K. Chesterton, Defendant (1901)

• The rich are the scum of the earth in every country. -G. K. Chesterton, Flying Inn (1914)

• There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person. -G. K. Chesterton, Heretics (1905)

• Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. -G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

• The men who really believe in themselves are all in lunatic asylums. -G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy; p. 14

• It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is that they can't see the problem. -G. K. Chesterton, Scandal of Father Brown (1935)

• He may be mad, but there's method in his madness. There nearly always is method in madness. It's what drives men mad, being methodical. -G. K. Chesterton, The Fad of the Fisherman (1922)

• But a somewhat more liberal and sympathetic examination of mankind will convince us that the cross is even older than the gibbet, that voluntary suffering was before and independent of compulsory; and in short that in most important matters a man has always been free to ruin himself if he chose. -G. K. Chesterton, What's Wrong With the World; p. 118

Let's Talk About Modesty

My friend Ashley posed this question in her blog:

Truly, what is the facination with girls who have these retarded pics of themselves half-naked or attempting to be sexy. I personally think they are making asses of themselves. You do not look sexy, my dear. You look silly.

Sexy is confidence. Sexy is chastity. Sexy is self-respect. Sexy is knowing that you are worth someone who will prove themselves to you. Sexy is knowing who you are. Sexy is being who you are and not trying to impress anyone.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about arrogant. I'm talking about...being a child of God, and knowing it! That's attractive.

So, I thought I would respond. Little did I know, I'd write a lot...so here's my response:

Allow me to explain...no, there is too much...allow me to sum up:Buttercup is marrying Humperdink in little less than half an hour....

Okay, so: I am one of those gentlemen that believes that modesty is marvelous. That self-respect is sexy and chastity is an incredible way of saying "I love my future husband/wife, and respect everyone else's, so out of respect for you, I'm not going to give myself or take away from anyone."

The problem, I'd say, is two fold:

First, I'll talk about men:

We guys are wired into our eyes, what we see. What these girls are showing, is only part of what guys are longing for, because everything is deeper than the surface. Sorry if I'm not making sense, I just woke up. Anyway... those things are very very tempting when they are presented and many guys just don't have the self-control to look away, or to respect the ladies... to any guys reading this, wondering why it might not be okay for us to look at the ladies and admire God's captivating creations...it's not that it's NOT okay, it's that we were not created to look at EVERYONE. Let me put it another way... your future wife is out there somewhere, maybe not in the city you live in, but she's out there somewhere, right? Right. (Unless you're gonna be a priest or religious or are called to be single.) Anyway, your future wife is very beautiful, the most beautiful woman you've ever seen (she was made perfect only for you, so of course she is, and I'm not talking supermodel looks, I'm talking the whole package beginning with the fact that she should be like your best friend...personality, morals, etc.). But here's where the problem is: some other guy starts to notice her. Sure, you're going to be married to her, but right now, she's not yours, and some other guy is checking out her body, her body that he is starting to lust after (which is a sin) and that he just might go after, and who knows where it goes from there, any number of directions. Doesn't feel too good, does it? If that's not a problem to you, just imagine what it would be like, if they were sitting right next to you, and you were married to her, and you looked over at him and he was checkin' her out right in front of you saying "dang girl... look at you." I think I've proven my point.

Fellas, pray for custody of the eyes. That's very important, so that you've got full control. It'll save you a lot of discomfort later in life, and you'll have a happier marriage.

Okay, now, for the ladies:

Do dress modestly, and don't take the "latest fashions" and say "well, these new 6-inch wide skirts are all they've got" because that sure is NOT all that they've got. You've just gotta learn to shop a little better. I guarantee that modest clothes for girls are available in stores, because I see modestly dressed girls all the time at my youth group things that I help out with, as well as with my awesome church friends. Sure, you may not get to shop at the pricey stores at the mall or whatever. Who bloody cares, you're respecting yourself, your body, and every guy that walks by. You're also showing respect and love for your future husband, who by right is the only man that should see what you're showing the world.

At the root of this problem, is that females are wired into their ears. The like what they hear and want to be told nice things about themselves and how they look and all of that. So they'll do what it takes to get to hear those things, because it makes them feel valid, or noticed, or loved.. and for some, if they aren't receiving that kind of attention, then something must be wrong. But I'm telling ya, there's nothing wrong with you. All females should be Princesses of God. And that, more than anything else, will not only bring around the right attention, but also the sort of attention that will love you when you're not as physically attractive, and will be with you to grow old together, and you will still be more beautiful to him than anything.

Protesting and petitioning the stores you shop at to get better, more modest clothes, does work, as a group of girls got something like 500 signatures from girls all over their city about one store's prom dresses, and that store asked those girls to be in charge of their incoming clothes for women. You do have the power to change things.

In closing:
It's both ways, but the change has gotta start somewhere.

For more information, Read this editorial... it's letters that I was a part of the creation of back in 2001 about modesty.