“If there is one thing worse that the modern weakening of major morals, it is the modern strengthening of minor morals.” — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Man must be certain of his morality for the simple reason that he has to suffer for it.” — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“People always brag about their vices; it is when they begin to brag about their virtues that they become insufferable.” — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“For the moral basis, it is obvious that man's ethical responsibility varies with his knowledge of consequences” — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“You irritate me sublimely. What can it be in me? Is it the relic of a moral sense?” — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“In the best Utopia, I must be prepared for the moral fall of any man in any position at any moment; especially… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Let us then, by all means, be proud of the virtues that we have not got; but let us not be too… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Virtue is not the absence of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate thing, like pain… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Morality did not begin by one man saying to another, "I will not hit you if you do not hit me"; there… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“For when once people have begun to believe that prosperity is the reward of virtue, their next calamity is obvious. If prosperity… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“A man treats his own faults as original sin and supposes them scattered everywhere with the seed of Adam. He supposes that… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“We are fond of talking about 'liberty'; but the way we end up actually talking of it is an attempt to avoid… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The modern world is not evil; in some ways the modern world is far too good. It is full of wild and… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The pagan, or rational, virtues are such things as justice and temperance, and Christianity has adopted them. The three mystical virtues which… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“I never use paradox. The statements I make are wearisome and obvious common sense. I have even been driven to the tedium of reading… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“Nothing, again, could be more prosaic and impenetrable than the domestic energies of Miss Diana Duke. But Innocent had somehow blundered on the discovery… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“The mass of men have been forced to be gay about the little things, but sad about the big ones. Nevertheless (I offer my… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“ask yourself how many people you have met who grumbled at a thing as incurable, and how many who attacked it as curable? How… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children's games from the beginning, and will probably do… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“Internationalism is in any case hostile to democracy….The only purely popular government is local, and founded on local knowledge. The citizens can rule the… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“There was a short railway official travelling up to the terminus, three fairly short market-gardeners picked up two stations afterwards, one very short widow… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“Humility is the mother of giants. One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.” — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“Man, by a blind instinct, knew that if once things were wildly questioned, reason could be questioned first. The authority of priests to absolve,… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“It is idle to talk always of the alternative of reason and faith. Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“But in order that life should be a story or romance to us, it is necessary that a great part of it, at any… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“Buddhism seeks after God with the largest conception it can find, the all-producing and all-absorbing One; Christianity seeks after God with the most elementary… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“Man is more himself, more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing and grief superficial.” — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
