"If a Thing is Worth Doing, it is Worth Doing Badly"

The quotation above is from GKC's What's Wrong with the World, which was written in 1910. Part Four of the book is entitled, "Education: Or the Mistake about the Child." The famous, and much abused, line comes up at the end of Chapter 14 of that section.

Here's what Dale Ahlquist, president of the American Chesterton Society has to say about the quotation:

The line, "if a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly," is not an excuse for poor efforts. It is perhaps and excuse for poor results. But or society is plagued by wanting good results with no efforts (or rather, with someone else's efforts). We hire someone else to work for us, to play for us (that is, to entertain us), to think for us, and to raise our children for us. We have left "the things worth doing" to others, on the poor excuse that others might be able
to do them better.

So what's that all about. Simply that I plan to continue the Society's meetings at Schlegel's Coffee House for at least the next six months. To date, none of the other Chillicothe Chestertonians have joined me for a meeting. I have been there, however, enjoying the atmosphere, reading The Flying Inn, and sipping decaf lattes. I'm taking the Chillicothe's First Capital Barbershop Chorus as my model. I know that the folks who formed that (3 people) met for at least six months before they were joined by other men interested in barbershop singing. Now they have about 10 guys who show up regularly and sing together. We even recently performed for Gallery Stroll.