“We are then able to answer in some manner the question, "Why have we no great men?" We have no great men chiefly because we are always looking for them. We are connoisseurs of greatness, and connoisseurs can never be great; we are fastidious, that is, we are small. When Diogenes went about with a lantern looking for an honest man, I am afraid he had very little time to be honest himself. And when anybody goes about on his hands and knees looking for a great man to worship, he is making sure that one man at any rate shall not be great.”

— G. K. Chesterton , Charles Dickens

Source: Charles Dickens (1906), Ch 1 : "The Dickens Period"

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G. K. Chesterton 229

English mystery novelist and Christian apologist 1874–1936

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