--- title: "1 Mental Progress Quotes By G.K. Chesterton" description: "1 Mental Progress quotes by G.K. Chesterton. Plus more from G.K. Chesterton and more Mental Progress sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/54e/g-k-chesterton-224_human-brain_whether-the-human-mind-can-advance-or-no_2248440.jpg" --- > [“Whether the human mind can advance or not, is a question too little discussed, for nothing can be more dangerous than to found our social philosophy on any theory which is debatable but has not been debated. But if we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-k-chesterton/whether-the-human-mind-can-advance-or-not-is-a-question-too-little-2/) [G.K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-k-chesterton/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/54e/g-k-chesterton-224_human-brain_whether-the-human-mind-can-advance-or-no_2248440.jpg) ## More by G.K. Chesterton > [“I never use paradox. The statements I make are wearisome and obvious common sense. I have even been driven to the tedium of reading…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-k-chesterton/i-never-use-paradox-the-statements-i-make-are-wearisome-and-obvious/) [G.K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-k-chesterton/) > [“Nothing, again, could be more prosaic and impenetrable than the domestic energies of Miss Diana Duke. But Innocent had somehow blundered on the discovery…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-k-chesterton/nothing-again-could-be-more-prosaic-and-impenetrable-than-the/) [G.K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-k-chesterton/) > [“The mass of men have been forced to be gay about the little things, but sad about the big ones. Nevertheless (I offer my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-k-chesterton/the-mass-of-men-have-been-forced-to-be-gay-about-the-little-things/) [G.K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-k-chesterton/) > [“ask yourself how many people you have met who grumbled at a thing as incurable, and how many who attacked it as curable? How…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-k-chesterton/ask-yourself-how-many-people-you-have-met-who-grumbled-at-a-thing-as/) [G.K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-k-chesterton/) > [“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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-k-chesterton/the-human-race-to-which-so-many-of-my-readers-belong-has-been-playing/) [G.K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-k-chesterton/) > [“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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-k-chesterton/internationalism-is-in-any-case-hostile-to-democracy-the-only-purely/) [G.K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-k-chesterton/) > [“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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-k-chesterton/there-was-a-short-railway-official-travelling-up-to-the-terminus/) [G.K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-k-chesterton/) > [“Humility is the mother of giants. One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-k-chesterton/humility-is-the-mother-of-giants-one-sees-great-things-from-the/) [G.K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-k-chesterton/) > [“Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-k-chesterton/anything-worth-doing-is-worth-doing-badly/) [G.K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-k-chesterton/) > [“There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-k-chesterton/there-exists-in-such-a-case-a-certain-institution-or-law-let-us-say/) [G.K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-k-chesterton/) > [“Man, by a blind instinct, knew that if once things were wildly questioned, reason could be questioned first. The authority of priests to absolve,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-k-chesterton/man-by-a-blind-instinct-knew-that-if-once-things-were-wildly/) [G.K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-k-chesterton/) > [“It is idle to talk always of the alternative of reason and faith. Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-k-chesterton/it-is-idle-to-talk-always-of-the-alternative-of-reason-and-faith/) [G.K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-k-chesterton/) > [“But in order that life should be a story or romance to us, it is necessary that a great part of it, at any…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-k-chesterton/but-in-order-that-life-should-be-a-story-or-romance-to-us-it-is/) [G.K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-k-chesterton/) > [“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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-k-chesterton/buddhism-seeks-after-god-with-the-largest-conception-it-can-find-the/) [G.K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-k-chesterton/) > [“Man is more himself, more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing and grief superficial.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-k-chesterton/man-is-more-himself-more-manlike-when-joy-is-the-fundamental-thing/) [G.K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-k-chesterton/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mental-progress/g-k-chesterton/#itemlist", "name": "1 Mental Progress Quotes By G.K. Chesterton", "numberOfItems": 1, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Whether the human mind can advance or not, is a question too little discussed, for nothing can be more dangerous than to found our social philosophy on any theory which is debatable but has not been debated. But if we assume, for the sake of argument, that there has been in the past, or will be in the future, such a thing as a growth or improvement of the human mind itself, there still remains a very sharp objection to be raised against the modern version of that improvement. The vice of the modern notion of mental progress is that it is always something concerned with the breaking of bonds, the effacing of boundaries, the casting away of dogmas. But if there be such a thing as mental growth, it must mean the growth into more and more definite convictions, into more and more dogmas. The human brain is a machine for coming to conclusions; if it cannot come to conclusions it is rusty. When we hear of a man too clever to believe, we are hearing of something having almost the character of a contradiction in terms. It is like hearing of a nail that was too good to hold down a carpet; or a bolt that was too strong to keep a door shut. Man can hardly be defined, after the fashion of Carlyle, as an animal who makes tools; ants and beavers and many other animals make tools, in the sense that they make an apparatus. Man can be defined as an animal that makes dogmas. As he piles doctrine on doctrine and conclusion on conclusion in the formation of some tremendous scheme of philosophy and religion, he is, in the only legitimate sense of which the expression is capable, becoming more and more human. When he drops one doctrine after another in a refined scepticism, when he declines to tie himself to a system, when he says that he has outgrown definitions, when he says that he disbelieves in finality, when, in his own imagination, he sits as God, holding no form of creed but contemplating all, then he is by that very process sinking slowly backwards into the vagueness of the vagrant animals and the unconsciousness of the grass. Trees have no dogmas. Turnips are singularly broad-minded. If then, I repeat, there is to be mental advance, it must be mental advance in the construction of a definite philosophy of life.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "G.K. 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