The Suicide of Thought (Orthodoxy Part III)

We continue our discussion of G.K. Chesterton's book Orthodoxy with his third chapter on how modernity's abandonment of Christianity not only lets vices go wild, but also virtues. We also discuss how Chesterton identifies modern false humility that remains skeptical about everything except its own skepticism. Here are some solid quotes from chapter three:

"The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone."

"A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert—himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt—the Divine Reason. Huxley preached a humility content to learn from Nature. But the new sceptic is so humble that he doubts if he can even learn."

"A man does not go mad because he makes a statue a mile high, but he may go mad by thinking it out in square inches."

"Every act of will is an act of self-limitation. To desire action is to desire limitation. In that sense every act is an act of self-sacrifice. When you choose anything, you reject everything else."

"But it is impossible to be an artist and not care for laws and limits. Art is limitation; the essence of every picture is the frame. If you draw a giraffe, you must draw him with a long neck. If, in your bold creative way, you hold yourself free to draw a giraffe with a short neck, you will really find that you are not free to draw a giraffe. The moment you step into the world of facts, you step into a world of limits."