Unyielding Compromise

Chesterton says in What's Wrong with the World: "Compromise used to mean half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf is better than a whole loaf."

We really are addicted to mediocrity when we see that the languages of Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome bestow the best verbal skills, and then say, "Well, Spanish students score higher than students of English only." 

Chesterton has said somewhere else that the only thing to be done with the "ideal" is to do it. He also quipped, "If its worth being done, its worth being done badly."

Let's hear it for going for the gusto!