Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes
Men in England are ruled, at this minute by the clock, by brutes who refuse them bread, by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern, and therefore wish to enslave.
Marxism: The theory that all the important things in history are rooted in an economic motive, that history is a science, a science of the search for food.
The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits.
There are no wise few. Every aristocracy that has ever existed has behaved, in all essential points, exactly like a small mob.
Democracy is like blowing your nose. You may not do it well, but it's something you ought to do yourself.
There must be some good in the life of battle, for so many good men have enjoyed being soldiers.
When you with velvets mantled o'er, Defy December's tempests frore, Oh! spare one garment from your store, To clothe the poor at Christmas.
A modern man may disapprove of some of his sweeping reforms, and approve others; but finds it difficult not to admire even where he does not approve.
Those thinkers who cannot believe in any gods often assert that the love of humanity would be in itself sufficient for them; and so, perhaps, it would, if they had it.
Women are the only realists; their whole object in life is to pit their realism against the extravagant, excessive, and occasionally drunken idealism of men.
The believers in miracles accept them (rightly or wrongly) because they have evidence for them. The disbelievers in miracles deny them (rightly or wrongly) because they have a doctrine against them.
There should be a burnished tablet let into the ground on the spot where some courageous man first ate Stilton cheese, and survived.
No sceptical philosopher can ask any questions that may not equally be asked by a tired child on a hot afternoon.
All that we call spirit and art and ecstacy only means that for one awful instant we remember that we forgot.
For religion all men are equal, as all pennies are equal, because the only value of any of them is that they bear the image of the king.
CIVILISATION is not to be judged by the rapidity of communication, but by the value of what is communicated.
What embitters the world is not excess of criticism, but absence of self-criticism.
If there is one thing worse than the modern weakening of major morals, it is the modern strengthening of minor morals.
All men matter. You matter. I matter. It's the hardest thing in theology to believe.
The Mass is not only about God becoming man, it is about Man becoming more himself.
Men rush towards complexity, but they yearn towards simplicity. They try to be kings; but they dream of being shepherds.
Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all. And faith means believing the incredible, or it is no virtue at all.
Eugenics asserts that all men must be so stupid that they cannot manage their own affairs; and also so clever that they can manage each other's.
The world will very soon be divided, unless I am mistaken, into those who still go on explaining our success, and those somewhat more intelligent who are trying to explain our failure.
Monotony has nothing to do with a place; monotony, either in its sensation or its infliction, is simply the quality of a person. There are no dreary sights; there are only dreary sight seers.
With every step of our lives we enter into the middle of some story which we are certain to misunderstand.
Civilization has run on ahead of the soul of man, and is producing faster than he can think and give thanks.
Real development is not leaving things behind, as on a road, but drawing life from them, as from a root.
Man must have just enough faith in himself to have adventures, and just enough doubt of himself to enjoy them.
It is human to err; and the only final and deadly error, among all our errors, is denying that we have ever erred.
Whatever else may be said of man, this one thing is clear: He is not what he is capable of being.
Christianity met the mythological search for romance by being a story and the philosophical search for truth by being a true story.
The one created thing which we cannot look at is the one thing in the light of which we look at everything.
The secularists have not wrecked divine things; but the secularists have wrecked secular things, if that is any comfort to them. The Titans did not scale heaven; but they laid waste the world.
There are a good many fools who call me a friend, and also a good many friends who call me a fool.
It is shorter to state the things forbidden than the things permitted; precisely because most things are permitted and only a few things forbidden.
Teach to the young, men's enduring truths, and let the learned amuse themselves with their passing errors.
Let us not decide what is good, but let it be considered good not to decide it.
