
Illustrated London News (29 April 1922)
Thoughts on Man's Purpose in Life (1974)
Context: I believe it is the duty of each of us to act as if the fate of the world depended on him. Admittedly, on man by himself cannot do the job. However, one man can make a difference. Each of us is obligated to bring his individual and independent capacities to bear upon a wide range of human concerns. It is with this conviction that we squarely confront our duty to prosperity. We must live for the future of the human race, and not of our own comfort or success.
Illustrated London News (29 April 1922)
G. K. Chesterton, in "On Holland" in Illustrated London News (29 April 1922)
Misattributed
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion (2012)
Jones v. Merionethshire Permanent Benefit Building Society (1891), L. R. 1 C. D. [1892], p. 183.
The third and fourth sentences are a paraphrase of a sentence by G. K. Chesterton: "I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act." Generally Speaking, "On Holland' (1928).
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985), First Inaugural address (1981)
Context: It is time for us to realize that we're too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We're not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. So, with all the creative energy at our command, let us begin an era of national renewal. Let us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength. And let us renew our faith and our hope. We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look.
Speech before the Colonization Society https://books.google.com/books?id=AoS2cqFQCSoC&pg=PA50
The trial of Charles B. Reynolds for blasphemy (1887)
Source: Warsaw Ghetto Memoirs of Janusz Korczak
The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), X : Religion, the Mythology of the Beyond and the Apocatastasis