Every one on the earth should believe that he has something to give to the world which cannot otherwise be given. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
But since he stood for England And knew what England means, Unless you give him bacon You must not give him beans. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Exactly at the instant when hope ceases to be reasonable it begins to be useful. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
...it is not necessary to the child to awaken to the sense of the strange and humorous by giving a man a… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Students of popular science... are always insisting that Christianity and Buddhism are very much alike, especially Buddhism. This is generally believed, and… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Every one on this earth should believe, amid whatever madness or moral failure, that his life and temperament have some object on… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Children feel the whiteness of the lily with a graphic and passionate clearness which we cannot give them at all. The only… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Every sane man recognises that unlimited liberty is anarchy, or rather is nonentity. The civic idea of liberty is to give the… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Such professions as the soldier and the lawyer ... give ample opportunity for crimes but not much for mere illusions. ... If… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
If we want to give poor people soap we must set out deliberately to give them luxuries. If we will not make… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
We are always giving foreign names to very native things. If there is a thing that reeks of the glorious tradition of… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
The humorous look of children is perhaps the most endearing of all the bonds that hold the Cosmos together. Their top-heavy dignity… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
The Byzantines hammered away at their hard and orthodox symbols, because they could not be in a mood to believe that men… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
What is education? Properly speaking, there is no such thing as education. Education is simply the soul of a society as it… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
A man making the confession of any creed worth ten minutes' intelligent talk, is always a man who gains something and gives… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Busy editors cannot be expected to put on their posters, "Mr. Wilkinson Still Safe," or "Mr. Jones, of Worthing, Not Dead Yet."… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
People accuse journalism of being too personal; but to me it has always seemed far too impersonal. It is charged with tearing… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Tradition is only democracy extended through time; it may be defined as an extension of the franchise. Tradition means giving votes to… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
A good Moslem king was one who was strict in religion, valiant in battle, just in giving judgment among his people, but… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
A man making the confession of any creed worth ten minutes' intelligent talk, is always a man who gains something and gives… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
THERE are no wise few; for in all men rages the folly of the Fall. Take your strongest, happiest, handsomest, best born,… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Were Patrick Henry to return to earth and look around on the vast economic order of the day, he might revise his… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
The aim of good prose words is to mean what they say. The aim of good poetical words is to mean what they do… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Youth is always too serious, and just now it is too serious about frivolity. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Tradition does not mean a dead town; it does not mean that the living are dead but that the dead are alive. It means… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
It is shorter to state the things forbidden than the things permitted; precisely because most things are permitted and only a few things forbidden. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Everyone seems to assume that the unscrupulous parts of journalism will be the frivolous or jocular parts. This is against all ethical experience. Jokes are generally honest. Complete solemnity is almost always dishonest. The writer of the snippet merely refers to a frivolous and fugitive fact in a frivolous and fugitive way. The writer of the leading article has to… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share
For Scotland has a double dose of the poison called heredity; the sense of blood in the aristocrat, the sense of doom in the… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Faith is always at a disadvantage; it is a perpetually defeated thing which survives all conquerors. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
A building is akin to dogma; it is insolent, like dogma. Whether or no it is permanent, it claims permanence, like a dogma. People… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
The triangle of truisms, of father, mother and child, cannot be destroyed; it can only destroy those civilizations which disregard it. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Criticism is only words about words, and of what use are words about such words as these? — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place...The old humility was a spur that prevented a man from stopping; not a nail in his boot that prevented him from going on. For the old humility made a man doubtful about his efforts, which made him work harder. But the new humility makes a man doubtful about his… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share
Plato was only a Bernard Shaw who unfortunately made his jokes in Greek. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image