# Quote — G. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

> No one doubts that an ordinary man can get on with this world: but we demand not strength enough to get on with it, but strength enough to get it on. Can he hate it enough to change it, and yet love it enough to think it worth changing? Can he look up at its colossal good without once feeling acquiescence? Can he look up at its colossal evil without once feeling despair? Can he, in short, be at once not only a pessimist and an optimist, but a fanatical pessimist and a fanatical optimist? Is he enough of a pagan to die for the world, and enough of a Christian to die to it? In this combination, I maintain, it is the rational optimist who fails, the irrational optimist who succeeds. He is ready to smash the whole universe for the sake of itself.

- Author: [G. Chesterton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton.md)
- Book: [Orthodoxy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/orthodoxy.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Orthodoxy_(book)#Chapter_V._%22The_Flag_of_the_World%22) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/orthodoxy/no-one-doubts

## More from this book

> In so far as we desire the definite reconstructions and the dangerous revolutions which have distinguished European civilisation, we shall not discourage the thought of possible ruin; we shall rather encourage it.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/orthodoxy/in-so-far-as.md)

> Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/orthodoxy/angels-can-fly.md)

> Alone of all creeds, Christianity has added courage to the virtues of the Creator. For the only courage worth calling courage must necessarily mean that the soul passes a breaking point—and does not break.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/orthodoxy/alone-of-all.md)