I left the fairy tales lying on the floor of the nursery, and I have not found any books so sensible since.
Interpretation
The quote reflects a transition from childhood fantasies to a desire for practical knowledge.
In this quote, Gilbert K. Chesterton expresses the idea that as we grow up, we often abandon the youthful idealism and fairy tales that once captivated us. He suggests that in adulthood, we may find that practical wisdom and sensible perspectives are harder to come by than the imaginative stories we cherished as children, highlighting a longing for the clarity and excitement of those early dreams amidst the complexities of adult life.
In practice
In a motivational speech on embracing reality, one might reference this quote to illustrate the importance of practicality.
Tradition does not mean a dead town; it does not mean that the living are dead but that the dead are alive. It means that it still matters what Penn did two hundred years ago or what Franklin did a hundred years ago; I never could feel in New York that it mattered what anybody did an hour ago.
I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.
The good Bishop of Assisi expressed a sort of horror at the hard life which the Little Brothers lived at the Portiuncula, without comforts, without possessions, eating anything they could get and sleeping anyhow on the ground. St. Francis answered him with that curious and almost stunning shrewdness which the unworldly can sometimes wield like a club of stone. He said, 'If we had any possessions, we should need weapons and laws to defend them.
The ordinary scientific man is strictly a sentimentalist. He is a sentimentalist in this essential sense, that he is soaked and swept away by mere associations.
I suppose every one must have reflected how primeval and how poetical are the things that one carries in one's pocket; the pocket-knife, for instance, the type of all human tools, the infant of the sword. Once I planned to write a book of poems entirely about things in my pockets. But I found it would be too long; and the age of the great epics is past.
Madness does not come by breaking out, but by giving in; by settling down in some dirty, little, self-repeating circle of ideas; by being tamed.
Perhaps losing integrity with yourself is the greatest stress of all, far more hurtful to us than competition, time pressure, or lack of respect. Our vitality is rooted in our integrity. When we do not live in one piece, our life force becomes divided. Becoming separated from our authentic values may weaken us.
When we disclaim praise, it is only showing our desire to be praised a second time.
If you own up to your mistakes, you don't suffer as much. But that's a tough lesson to learn.
Beware the ends of the earth and the exotic: the drama is on your doorstep wherever the slums; are, wherever there is malnutrition, wherever there is exploitation and cruelty.
To praise it would amount to praising myself. For the entire content of the work... coincides almost exactly with my own meditations which have occupied my mind for the past thirty or thirty-five years.
Cultivating care and concern for others gives rise to a kind of inner strength. No matter what difficulties or problems you face, in this wider context they’ll seem less significant and troubling to you. The inner strength, self-confidence and courage you gain by focussing on others’ needs instead of your own, brings with it a deep, calm sense of satisfaction.
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