Q.
Over recent months I have seen, in four separate and unrelated journals,
Chesterton's "Some things are too big to be seen." Did he say it?
Do you know where he said it?
- Michael
A.
This is a paradox Chesterton returned to a number of times:
- "Men can always be blind to a thing so long as it is big enough."
- "The Story of the Vow," The Superstition of Divorce
- "A thing can be hid by being big." - Illustrated London
News, 7 December, 1907
- "An outline can focus what often seems formless and sprawling
through being too large to be seen." - Cobbett, 57
- "'Perhaps the weapon was too big to be noticed,' said the priest
with an odd little giggle." - Father Brown: "The Three Tools
of Death"
- "A thing can sometimes be too close to be seen." - Father
Brown: "The Song of the Flying Fish"
- "Mr. Pond, do tell us what you mean by a man being too tall
to be seen." - "A Tall Story," The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond
There are undoubtedly many more instances.
- The "Quotemeister"
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