Gilbert Keith Chesterton

England
29 May 1874 // 14 Jun 1936
Writer

The Moral Cowardice of Modern Politicians

For fear of the newspapers politicians are dull, and at last they are too dull even for the newspapers. The speeches in our time are more careful and elaborate, because they are meant to be read, and not to be heard. And exactly because they are more careful and elaborate, they are not so likely to be worthy of a careful and elaborate report. They are not interesting enough. So the moral cowardice of modern politicians has, after all, some punishment attached to it by the silent anger of heaven. Precisely because our political speeches are meant to be reported, they are not worth reporting. Precisely because they are carefully designed to be read, nobody reads them.

Gilbert Chesterton, in 'On the Cryptic and the Elliptic'
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