A Hero Among Dragons

In reading G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy I am continually finding quotable tidbits.
With my own penchant for both fairy tales and modren literature, this is one of my favorites so far...

You can make a story out of a hero among dragons; but not out of a dragon among dragons. The fairy tale discusses what a sane man will do in a mad world.  The sober realistic novel of to-day discusses what an essential lunatic will do in a dull world.

Chesterton is the King of saying something profound that seems so obvious once it's been said. 
One of his basic premises is that that modern rationalist is in fact very similar to a lunatic. This struck me as particularly insightful after listening to a recent lecture up at St. Barbara's Monastery given by Mother Melania. Her premise was similar but even more far reaching.  She said we are all, apart from the saints, mad, in that we all to one degree or another reject God's reason and choose the madness of sin. 

All this makes the madness of the world a little more comprehensible, I think.