I recently came across this quote by G. K. Chesterton.
The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it.
(Note that the version I initially saw stated, "The paradox of courage is that one must be a little careless of life to keep it.”)
Originally, I had difficulty interpreting this quote as the phrasing is a little archaic. After a brief period of contemplation, I interpreted it as "one must be a little careless of one's life to keep courage."
Later, I found an excerpt from his book Orthodoxy which addresses a similar idea. With this context, my new interpretation is that "having courage means being able to risk their life in order to survive." I think "even" in the quote emphasises that this is the minimal effort they have to make in order to live.
Firstly, I would like to know if my interpretation is correct or read others' interpretations.
Secondly, I would like to understand how I would interpret similar sentences in the future. I primarily had difficulty understanding what "it" referred to and how "courage" had anything to do with what followed. I was also confused by the inclusion of "even" in the sentence. I was reading it in two possible ways: "his life even, in order to keep it" and "his life, even in order to keep it." I am not an expert in grammar so I do not know if this makes sense, but I could not understand if "even" was associated with the expression before or the expression after.
