The Ball and the Cross

by G.K. Chesterton

Man is a contradiction in terms; he is a beast whose superiority to other beasts consists in having fallen. That cross is, as you say, an eternal collision; so am I. That is a struggle in stone. Every form of life is a struggle in flesh. The shape of the cross is irrational, just as the shape of the human animal is irrational. You say the cross is a quadruped with one limb longer than the rest. I say man is a quadruped who only uses two of his legs."

You start by hating the irrational and you come to hate everything, for everything is irrational and so——"

He knew that even his animal life could only be saved by a considerable readiness to lose it.

If I hate you it is because you have hated goodness. And if I like you...it is because you are good."

The Church always seems to be behind the times, when it is really beyond the times; it is waiting till the last fad shall have seen its last summer. It keeps the key of a permanent virtue."

"The cross cannot be defeated," said MacIan, "for it is Defeat."