On Paradoxes (mostly from Chesterton).

The four or five things that it is most practically essential that a man should know, are all of them what are called paradoxes. That is to say, that though we all find them in life to be mere plain truths, yet we cannot easily state them in words without being guilty of seeming verbal contradictions.

A man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it.

The more a man looks at a thing, the less he can see it, and the more a man learns a thing the less he knows it.

The man who finds most pleasure for himself is often the man who least hunts for it.

The very fact of two things possessing differences implies that they are mostly similar.

The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land.

The man who wishes to be strong must despise the strong.

Every man, however wise, who begins by worshiping success, must end in mere mediocrity. It is not the folly of the man which brings about this necessary fall; it is his wisdom.

The strong cannot be brave. Only the weak can be brave; and yet again, in practice, only those who can be brave can be trusted, in time of doubt, to be strong. The only way in which a giant could really keep himself in training against the inevitable Jack would be by continually fighting other giants ten times as big as himself. That is by ceasing to be a giant and becoming a Jack.

Vanity is a much wiser and more vigorous thing than is pride. Vanity is social—it is almost a kind of comradeship; pride is solitary and uncivilized. Vanity is active; it desires the applause of infinite multitudes; pride is passive, desiring only the applause of one person, which it already possesses.

The only serious reason which could possibly induce any one person to listen to any other is, that the first person looks to the second person with an ardent faith and a fixed attention, expecting him to say what he does not expect him to say. If we do not expect the unexpected, why do we listen at all? If we expect the expected, why do we not sit at home and expect it by ourselves?

Individualism is the foe of individuality. Where men are trying to compete with each other they are trying to copy each other. They become featureless by 'featuring' the same part. Personality, in becoming a conscious ideal, becomes a common ideal.

It is a great mistake to suppose that love unites and unifies men. Love diversifies them, because love is directed towards individuality. The thing that really unites men and makes them like to each other is hatred.

Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Madness may be defined as using mental activity so as to reach mental helplessness.

It is idle to talk always of the alternative of reason and faith. Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all. If you are merely a skeptic, you must sooner or later ask yourself the question, "Why should anything go right; even observation and deduction? Why should not good logic be as misleading as bad logic? Are they not both movements in the brain of a bewildered ape?"

The sane person always cares more for truth than consistency. If he sees two truths that seem to contradict each other, he accepts both truths and the contradiction along with them. His intellectual sight is stereoscopic, like his physical sight: he sees two different pictures at once and yet sees all the better for that.

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Similarly, Christianity rests on a few paradoxes or mysteries which can easily be impugned in argument and as easily justified in life.

The paradox of constancy—that the more doubtful the situation the more faithful must be the man.

The paradox of chivalry—that the weaker a thing the more it should be respected, and the more indefensible a thing the more it should require our deference.

The paradox of humility-that we can only safely be proud of the things we had nothing to do with, except be the recipient.

Each of these Christian or mystical virtues involves a paradox in its own nature, which is not true of any of the typically pagan or rationalist virtues. Justice consists in finding out a certain thing due to a certain man and giving it to him. Temperance consists in finding out the proper limit of a particular indulgence and adhering to that.

But charity means pardoning what is unpardonable, or it is no virtue at all. Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all. And trust means believing the incredible, or it is no virtue at all. The famous childish definition of faith is "the power of believing that which we know to be untrue." Yet this is not one atom more paradoxical than hope or charity. Charity is the power of defending that which we know to be indefensible. Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances which we know to be desperate.

They are all paradoxical, they are all practical, and they are all paradoxical because they are practical. Paradox is not a frivolous thing, but a very serious thing. Paradox simply means a certain defiant joy which belongs to belief. All philosophical problems tend to become paradoxical.

Sometimes when you try to reason something too precisely you only succeed in demonstrating the paucity of your conception. Anthony Collins joked no one doubted the existence of a deity until Samuel Clarke tried to prove it. [Samuel Clarke, Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion, tried to prove the existence of God a posteriori, and was accused of philosophical materialism.] Leslie Stephen joked no one doubted the doctrine of the trinity until William Sherlock tried to demonstrate it. [William Sherlock, A vindication of the doctrine of the holy and ever blessed Trinity, attempted to disprove unitarianism during the first Socinian controversy (1690 in England), and was accused of tri-theism.]

If you cannot succeed in wrapping your mind about some axiom, it does not prove that the axiom is false, only that your mind plays you false. It is incomprehensible that God should exist, and it is incomprehensible that He should not exist; that the soul should be joined to the body, and that we should have no soul; that the universe should be created, and that it should not be created; that original sin should be, and that it should not be. Contradiction is a unreliable sign of validity; several things which are certain are contradictory; several things which are false pass without contradiction. Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the want of contradiction a sign of truth.

Christ came as a servant (Phil. 2:6) and a Lord (Luke 2:11).

All things are possible for God (Matt. 19:26) and God cannot lie (Tit. 1:2).

God will not acquit the wicked (Exod. 23:7) and God justifies the ungodly (Rom. 4:5).

There will be no poor among you (Deut. 15:4, Acts 4:31) and you always have the poor with you (Matt. 26:11, Mark 14:7, John 12:8).

We are to bear one another's burdens (Gal. 6:2) and bear our own burdens (Gal. 6:5).

We are to take no thought for tomorrow (Matt. 6:34) and provide for our own (1 Tim. 5:8).

We are to let our light shine before men (Matt. 5:16) and not let our left hand know what our right is doing (Matt. 6:4).

The hands that made the sun and stars (John 1:2) were too small to reach the huge heads of the cattle (Luke 2).