“The transition from the good man to the saint is a sort of revolution; by which one for whom all things illustrate… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Being surrounded with every conceivable kind of revolt from infancy, Gabriel had to revolt into something, so he revolted into the only… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The boldest plans for the future invoke the authority of the past; and that even a revolutionary seeks to satisfy himself that… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“the sixteenth-century schism was really a belated revolt of the thirteenth-century pessimists. It was a back-wash of the old Augustinian Puritanism against… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Therefore the modern man in revolt has become practically useless for all purposes of revolt. By rebelling against everything he has lost… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Now in history there is no Revolution that is not a Restoration. Among the many things that leave me doubtful about the… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“There again," said Syme irritably, "what is there poetical about being in revolt? You might as well say that it is poetical… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The person who is really in revolt is the optimist, who generally lives and dies in a desperate and suicidal effort to… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The silly sentimentalists of the French Revolution talked of the Rights of Man! We hate Rights as we hate Wrongs. We have… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Being surrounded with every conceivable kind of revolt from infancy, Gabriel had to revolt into something, so he revolted into the only… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The poet will be discontented even in the streets of heaven. The poet is always in revolt." "There again," said Syme irritably,… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“There are two kinds of revolutionists, as of most things – a good kind and a bad. The bad revolutionists destroy conventions… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“No gleam of reason, no momentary return to first principles, no abstract asking of any obvious question, can interrupt this mad and… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“For our Titanic purposes of faith and revolution, what we need is not the cold acceptance of the world as a compromise,… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“But the new rebel is a skeptic, and will not entirely trust anything. He has no loyalty; therefore he can never be… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“But the new rebel is a skeptic, and will not entirely trust anything. He has no loyalty; therefore he can never be… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Liberalism has been degraded into liberality. Men have tried to turn "revolutionise" from a transitive to an intransitive verb. The Jacobin could… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“What the gods are supposed to be, what the priests are commissioned to say, is not a sensational secret like what those… — 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
