“Is literature better, is politics better, for having discarded the moralist and the philosopher?” — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“A religion is not the church a man goes to but the cosmos he lives in; and if any sceptic forgets it,… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“If you consulted your business experiences instead of your ugly individualistic philosophy, you would know that believing in himself is one of… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“We say that the dangerous criminal is the educated criminal. We say that the most dangerous criminal now is the entirely lawless… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“central Christian theology (sufficiently summarized in the Apostles' Creed) is the best root of energy and sound ethics.” — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“In so far as religion is gone, reason is going. For they are both of the same primary and authoritative kind. They… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Whether the human mind can advance or not, is a question too little discussed, for nothing can be more dangerous than to… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“a man is not really convinced of a philosophic theory when he finds that something proves it. He is only really convinced… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“the fundamental things in a man are not the things he explains, but rather the things he forgets to explain.” — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“We think the cat superior because we have (or most of us have) a particular philosophy to the effect that life is… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“even nursery tales only echo an almost pre-natal leap of interest and amazement. These tales say that apples were golden only to… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“I'm afraid I'm a practical man,' said the doctor with gruff humour, 'and I don't bother much about religion and philosophy.' 'You'll… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“There is one thing that is infinitely more absurd and unpractical than burning a man for his philosophy. This is the habit… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The materialist philosophy (whether true or not) is certainly much more limiting than any religion. In one sense, of course, all intelligent… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The modern philosopher had told me again and again that I was in the right place, and I still felt depressed even… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Every man, however wise, who begins by worshipping success, must end in mere mediocrity. This strange and paradoxical fate is involved, not… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“If it be true (as it certainly is) that a man can feel exquisite happiness in skinning a cat, then the religious… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Nine times out of ten a man’s broad-mindedness is necessarily the narrowest thing about him. This is not particularly paradoxical; it is,… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The work of the philosophical policeman," replied the man in blue, "is at once bolder and more subtle than that of the… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The wild worship of lawlessness and the materialist worship of law end in the same void. Nietzsche scales staggering mountains, but he… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Efficiency," of course, is futile … It has no philosophy for incidents before they happen; therefore it has no power of choice.… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“We say that the dangerous criminal is the educated criminal. We say that the most dangerous criminal now is the entirely lawless… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“My first and last philosophy ... I learnt in the nursery... The things I believed then, the things I believe most now,… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Perhaps it would sound too paradoxical to say that these two saints saved us from Spirituality; a dreadful doom. Perhaps it may… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“There are some people, nevertheless — and I am one of them — who think that the most practical and important thing… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Whether the human mind can advance or not, is a question too little discussed, for nothing can be more dangerous than to… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The modern mind is like the eye of a man who is too tired to see the difference between blue and green.… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Suppose that a great commotion arises in the street about something, let us say a lamp-post, which many influential persons desire to… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The truth is, I think, that they are caught in a sort of argument in a circle. Their vague philosophy says to… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“We say that the most dangerous criminal now is the entirely lawless modern philosopher. Compared to him, burglars and bigamists are essentially… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The modern mind is merely a blank about the philosophy of toleration; and the average agnostic of recent times has really had… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The present importance of the Book of Job cannot be expressed adequately even by saying that it is the most interesting of… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“When the old Liberals removed the gags from all the heresies, their idea was that religious and philosophical discoveries might thus be… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Blasphemy is an artistic effect, because blasphemy depends upon a philosophical conviction. Blasphemy depends upon belief and is fading with it. If… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“I do not say that there are no stronger men than these; but will any one say that there are any men… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“I never said a word against eminent men of science. What I complain of is a vague popular philosophy which supposes itself… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“This is not a university town full of philosophies; it is a Zion of the hundred sieges raging with religions; not a… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“A man is partially convinced because he has found this or that proof of the thing, and he can expound it. But… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“But in practice the great difference between the medieval ethics and ours is that ours concentrate attention on the sins which are… — 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
