When a man ceases to believe in god, he does not believe in nothing. He believes in everything. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
He is only a very shallow critic who cannot see an eternal rebel in the heart of the Conservative. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
But the truth is that it is only by believing in God that we can ever criticise the Government. Once abolish the… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
The man who says, 'my country right or wrong' is like the man who says, 'my mother drunk or sober' — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
If the common man in the past had a grave respect for property, it may conceivably have been because he sometimes had… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
The Party System was founded on one national notion of fair play. It was the notion that folly and futility should be… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
A nation is not going mad when it does extravagant things, so long as it does them in an extravagant spirit. But… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
When [a politician] is in opposition, he is an expert on the means to some end; and when he is in office… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
I would rather a boy learnt in the roughest school the courage to hit a politician, or gained in the hardest school… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Precisely because our political speeches are meant to be reported, they are not worth reporting. Precisely because they are carefully designed to… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
For good or evil, a line has been passed in our political history; and something that we have known all our lives… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
America is the only nation in the world that is founded on creed. That creed is set forth with dogmatic and even… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
The greatest political storm flutters only a fringe of humanity. But an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
The materialist theory of history, that all politics and ethics are the expression of economics, is a very simple fallacy indeed. It… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
For the mass of men the idea of artistic creation can only be expressed by an idea unpopular in present discussions -… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
But the truth is that it is only by believing in God that we can ever criticize the government. Once abolish the… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
All the controversialists who have become conscious of the real issue are already saying of our ideal exactly what used to be… — 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
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
Youth is always too serious, and just now it is too serious about frivolity. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share
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
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
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
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
Faith is always at a disadvantage; it is a perpetually defeated thing which survives all conquerors. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share
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
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
Criticism is only words about words, and of what use are words about such words as these? — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share
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
Plato was only a Bernard Shaw who unfortunately made his jokes in Greek. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share
Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share
Eugenics asserts that all men must be so stupid that they cannot manage their own affairs; and also so clever that they can manage… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share