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Eugenics and Other Evils: An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State QUOTES

Eugenics and Other Evils: An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State QUOTES

61 " Say to them "The persuasive and even coercive powers of the citizen should enable him to make sure that the burden of longevity in the previous generation does not become disproportionate and intolerable, especially to the females"; say this to them and they will sway slightly to and fro like babies sent to sleep in cradles. Say to them "Murder your mother," and they sit up quite suddenly "

― G.K. Chesterton , Eugenics and Other Evils: An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State

62 " Yet the two sentences, in cold logic, are exactly the same. "

― G.K. Chesterton , Eugenics and Other Evils: An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State

63 " when the narrow if once useful distinction between the anthropoid homo and the other animals, which has been modified on so many moral points, may be modified also even in regard to the important question of the extension of human diet"; say this to them, and beauty born of murmuring sound will pass into their face. But say to them, in a simple, manly, hearty way "Let's eat a man!" and their surprise is quite surprising. Yet the sentences say just the same thing. "

― G.K. Chesterton , Eugenics and Other Evils: An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State

64 " The State can only be that corporation which men permit to employ compulsion; and this area can only be the area of sexual selection. "

― G.K. Chesterton , Eugenics and Other Evils: An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State

65 " The next sect of superficial objectors is even more irritating. I have called them, for immediate purposes, the Casuists. Suppose I say "I dislike this spread of Cannibalism in the West End restaurants." Somebody is sure to say "Well, after all, Queen Eleanor when she sucked blood from her husband's arm was a cannibal." What is one to say to such people? "

― G.K. Chesterton , Eugenics and Other Evils: An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State

66 " Suppose I say "I dislike this spread of Cannibalism in the West End restaurants." Somebody is sure to say "Well, after all, Queen Eleanor when she sucked blood from her husband's arm was a cannibal." What is one to say to such people? "

― G.K. Chesterton , Eugenics and Other Evils: An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State

67 " surely anyone's common-sense must tell him that if Eugenics dealt only with such extravagant cases, it would be called common-sense—and not Eugenics. "

― G.K. Chesterton , Eugenics and Other Evils: An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State

68 " You may call it flogging when you hit a choking gentleman on the back; you may call it torture when a man unfreezes his fingers at the fire; but if you talk like that a little longer you will cease to live among living men. "

― G.K. Chesterton , Eugenics and Other Evils: An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State