Chesterton uses paradox in “The Fallacy of Success” to express his opinion of books that tell readers how to prosper; which excerpt below demonstrates this idea?
“[Books about success] are much more wild than the wildest romances of chivalry and much more dull than the dullest religious tract.”
“No one would dare to publish an article on botany which showed that the writer did not know which end of a plant grew in the earth. Yet our modern world is full of books about Success and successful people which literally contain no kind of idea, and scarcely any kind of verbal sense.”
“At least, let us hope that we shall all live to see these absurd books about Success covered with a proper derision and neglect . . . The Puritans are always denouncing books that inflame lust; what shall we say of books that inflame the viler passions of avarice and pride?”
“On every bookstall, in every magazine, you may find works telling people how to succeed. They are books showing men how to succeed in everything; they are written by men who cannot even succeed in writing books.”