Book excerpt: Fashion: An ideals that fails to satisfy. Water: A medicine. It should be taken in small quantities in very extreme cases; as when one is going to faint. Work: Doing what you do not like. This quirky, original compilation serves up the eccentric wit and thought-provoking aphorisms of one of the twentieth century's liveliest and most articulate minds. Assembled by the president of the American Chesterton Society, it features alphabetical entries of "Chesternitions"—pithy and poetic definitions of words in the spirit of Samuel Johnson. Great for casual browsing or cover-to-cover study, the volume includes more than two dozen of Chesterton's distinctive drawings.