“Is literature better, is politics better, for having discarded the moralist and the philosopher?” — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“It is one thing to believe in witches, and quite another to believe in witch-smellers.” — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The things said most confidently by advanced persons to crowded audiences are generally those opposite to the fact; it is actually our… — G.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… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The only crime of the Government is that it governs. The unpardonable sin of the supreme power is that it is supreme.… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Whatever we may think of the merits of torturing children for pleasure, and no doubt there is much to be said on… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“ask yourself how many people you have met who grumbled at a thing as incurable, and how many who attacked it as… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“I do not deny, but strongly affirm, the right of the State to interfere to cure a great evil. I say that… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“My own general thesis was somewhat to this effect: that Artists have worried the world by being wantonly, needlessly, and gratuitously progressive.… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Internationalism is in any case hostile to democracy….The only purely popular government is local, and founded on local knowledge. The citizens can… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The poor have been rebels, but they have never become anarchists: they have got more interest than anyone in there being some… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“just as when we see a pig in a litter larger than the other pigs, we know that by an unalterable law… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed. That creed is set forth with dogmatic and… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Well, you have said that you were quite certain I was not a serious anarchist. Does this place strike you as being… — 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
“When the business man rebukes the idealism of his office-boy, it is commonly in some such speech as this: "Ah, yes, when… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The thing that really is trying to tyrannize through government is Science. The thing that really does use the secular arm is… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“If better conditions will make the poor more fit to govern themselves, why should not better conditions already make the rich more… — 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
