Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. . G.k. Chesterton
About This Quote

When a mother says to her child, "Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free," she is reminding the child that he has a capacity for love and passion. For the child’s spirit is fierce and free. The child wants things repeated and unchanged. He always says, "Do it again." But when the child grows up, his spirit changes.

He no longer has the same capacity for love and passion. And so he does not want things repeated and unchanged. He wants them changed in some significant way.

This is why we say that grown-up people do not exult in monotony. They exult in novelty, in change, in something different every time they repeat something.

Source: Orthodoxy

Some Similar Quotes
  1. A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment. - Jane Austen

  2. What's this?" he demanded, looking from Clary to his companions, as if they might know what she was doing there." It's a girl, " Jace said, recovering his composure. "Surely you've seen girls before, Alec. Your sister Isabelle is one. - Cassandra Clare

  3. Welcome to the wonderful world of jealousy, he thought. For the price of admission, you get a splitting headache, a nearly irresistable urge to commit murder, and an inferiority complex. Yippee. - J.r. Ward

  4. I'm saying that I'm a moody, insecure, narrow-minded, jealous, borderline homicidal bitch, and I want you to promise me that you're okay with that, because it's who I am, and you're what I need. - Jeaniene Frost

  5. Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love. - Charles M. Schulz

More Quotes By G.k. Chesterton
  1. The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.

  2. To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.

  3. Love is not blind that is the last thing that it is. Love is bound and the more it is bound the less it is blind.

  4. The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.

  5. I wish we could sometimes love the characters in real life as we love the characters in romances. There are a great many human souls whom we should accept more kindly, and even appreciate more clearly, if we simply thought of them as people in...

Related Topics