The sane man knows that he has a touch of the beast, a touch of the devil, a touch of the saint,… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Men are ruled, at this minute by the clock, by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Every one of the great revolutionists, from Isaiah to Shelley, have been optimists. They have been indignant, not about the badness of… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Only friendliness produces friendship. And we must look far deeper into the soul of man for the thing that produces friendliness. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Doing nothing is sometimes one of the highest of the duties of man. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
A great man is not a man so strong that he feels less than other men; he is a man so strong… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
It is a strange thing that many truly spiritual men, such as General Gordon, have actually spent some hours in speculating upon… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Bigotry may be roughly defined as the anger of men who have no opinions. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Ideas are dangerous, but the man to whom they are least dangerous is the man of ideas. He is acquainted with ideas,… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Ingratitude is surely the chief of the intellectual sins of man. He takes his political benefits for granted, just as he takes… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Every man speaks of public opinion, and means by public opinion, public opinion minus his opinion. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
But a somewhat more liberal and sympathetic examination of mankind will convince us that the cross is even older than the gibbet,… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
But those dealing in the actual manufacture of mind are dealing in a very explosive material. The material is not merely the… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
A child's instinct is almost perfect in the matter of fighting. The child's hero is always the man or boy who defends… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Every man is important if he loses his life;and every man is funny if he loses his hat and has to run… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
All men thirst to confess their crimes more than tired beasts thirst for water; but they naturally object to confessing them while… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
An imbecile habit has arisen in modern controversy of saying that such and such a creed can be held in one age… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Boyhood is a most complex and incomprehensible thing. Even when one has been through it, one does not understand what it was.… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Stick to the man who looks out of the window and tries to understand the world. Keep clear of the man who… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Our civilization has decided that determining the guilt or innocence of men is a thing too important to be trusted to trained… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
We have not made cricket and football [soccer] professional because of any astonishing avarice or new vulgarity. We have made them professional… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
If a man says that he is Jesus Christ, it is no answer to tell him that the world denies his divinity;… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect. Men do not quarrel about… — 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
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… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
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… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Plato was only a Bernard Shaw who unfortunately made his jokes in Greek. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image