Do it Again!

[primsong]

Coming in from working in the yard with the morning robins hopping about me, I was looking over meneleth's post this morning with some of her favorite quotes. She suggested sharing a favorite in return - but so many of mine are not quotes, they are passages that I thought it better to simply post one here. One of the several 'blank books' that I have around the house to write various things in is slowly filling up with favorite quotes, jokes, snatches, poems and passages that I've come across over the years and not wanted to have to go find every time I wanted to read them again, this is from there - I no longer remember which book of G.K. Chesterton's I found it in, but I still love the image of the sun bounding happily over the field of daisies out of sheer joy for something that never will grow old:

"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. 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 gotten 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

Comments

[shirebound]

Thank you for sharing that lovely quote.

[primsong.livejournal.com]

Chesterton is amazing, I don't always agree with everything he concludes, but I love his writings. "Orthodoxy" is a favorite and *much* better than its dry title would suggest...this may be from there.

[halavana.livejournal.com]

2 thoughts:
Gonna have to think about that one.
Definitely worth thinking about!
Thanks for posting. (is that really 3 thoughts?)

[primsong.livejournal.com]

One thing Chesterton does very well is make people think - there are times I've picked him up to read and maybe read one or two paragraphs and then put it down because that's all I could manage to ponder just then.

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, I do love an awful lot of Chesteron's stuff. I must find a way to get my hands on his actual essays one of these days, because the quotes I've seen from them make them sound more fun than some of his fiction.

Hmm. And next time I do quote icons, I think I should throw in some Chesterton. Especially the one about running after one's hat. :-)

[primsong.livejournal.com]

You know, I've never read any of his fiction yet - I just like his essays and maunderings and ponderings. I recently picked up a volume of his poetry that I'm hoping to plough into later this summer though.

[thisbluespirit]

I have a copy of the complete works of his poetry - I love it (as you will have noticed in my fic!!). I never quite got to grips with the two novels when I read them years ago, but the Father Brown ones are very interesting, and I loved the collection of short stories The Club of Queer Trades very, very much, although I've never seen it again anywhere, sadly.

I've seen quotes from his essays, but never had a chance to read them. And I love the bit about running after his hat, also having a pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling with while you lie in bed and stuff like that. Makes me think they'd have to be worth a look! :-D

[john_amend_all]

If you can put up with reading them from a screen, an awful lot of Chesterton's works (fiction and non-fiction) have been archived here.

[clocketpatch]

Why do I get the impression that this will be taking up a lot of my spare time over the next few days?

[ravenskyewalker.livejournal.com]

I've definitely got to read some Chesterton. Shame on me that I haven't.

I've been seeing crows sitting out in the sun, looking relaxed to the point of being stoned, with heads tilted back and beaks open. Guess they're having fun!