Gilbert Keith Chesterton

SAVONAROLA
Savonarola is a man whom we shall probably never understand until we know what horror may lie at the heart of civilisation.

Through all this or­deal his root hor­ror had been isol­a­tion, and there are no words to ex­press the abyss between isol­a­tion and hav­ing one ally. It may be con­ceded to the math­em­aticians that four is twice two. But two is not twice one; two is two thou­sand times one. That is why, in spite of a hun­dred dis­ad­vant­ages, the world will al­ways re­turn to mono­gamy.

You think that it is pos­sible to pull down the Pres­id­ent. I know that it is im­possible, and I am go­ing to try it

Fight the thing that you fear.

An old man in poor health, like my rival, could not be ex­pec­ted to be so im­press­ively feeble as a young actor in the prime of life.

The first was the old fear that any mir­acle might hap­pen, the second the more hope­less mod­ern fear that no mir­acle can ever hap­pen.

“Listen to me,” cried Syme with ex­traordin­ary em­phasis. “Shall I tell you the secret of the whole world? It is that we have only known the back of the world. We see everything from be­hind, and it looks bru­tal. That is not a tree, but the back of a tree. That is not a cloud, but the back of a cloud. Can­not you see that everything is stoop­ing and hid­ing a face? If we could only get round in front—”

Harold March was the sort of man who knows everything about politics, and nothing about politicians.

He was unquestionably dead. The blood flowed in the grass from a hopelessly fatal fracture at the back of the skull; but the face, which was turned to the sun, was uninjured and strangely arresting

It was like daylight on the other side of stage scenery.