27 March 2008

Pitiless truth and truthless pity

Louise over at Purcell's Chicken Voluntary has a good post based on a quotation from Chesterton. I quote:

Chesterton had an uncanny ability to see the big picture. He said that in a broken society, two things happen: the vices run wild and do great damage, but the virtues also run wild and do perhaps even greater damage "because they are isolated from each other and wandering alone."

Thus, there will be some who care only for truth and others who care only for pity. But with those on the one side, "their truth is pitiless," and those on the other side, "their pity is untruthful."

Good words, good to remember. I see the relevence of this almost everywhere I look, and the common thread to both sides is pride, pride in holding a truth which we do not possess, or pride in pushing pity beyond the truths we are given.

Do you ever think someone is laughing at our stupidity and arrogance?

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