“We are the enemies of society, for society is the enemy of humanity.” — G.K. Chesterton Community Copy Share Image
“To the delight of the poetic little gutter boys in the little grey streets.” — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Without the family, we are helpless before the State.” — G.K. Chesterton Catholicism Copy Share Image
“Different first principles make debate impossible.” — G.K. Chesterton First Principles Copy Share Image
“Madness and despair are innocent enough. There are worse things, Flambeau.” — G.K. Chesterton Father-brown Copy Share Image
“Perhaps you know that you are the King of England; but why do you care?” — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“There is only one thing which is generally safe from plagiarism -- self-denial.” — G.K. Chesterton Imitation Copy Share Image
“The Catholic Church is the only thing which saves a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age” — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The boldest plans for the future invoke the authority of the past; and that even a revolutionary seeks to satisfy himself that… — G.K. Chesterton History Copy Share Image
“Then I realized that for eighteen hundred years the Church Militant had not been a pageant, but a riot—and a suppressed riot.… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The author challenges how much sanctity has to do with sameness, as he says saints are as different from each other as… — G.K. Chesterton Books Copy Share Image
“Merely having an open mind is nothing. The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it… — G.K. Chesterton Open mind Copy Share Image
“He has a fancy for always sitting in a pitch-dark room. He says it makes his thoughts brighter.” — G.K. Chesterton Dark room Copy Share Image
“Satire may be mad and anarchic, but it presupposes an admitted superiority in certain things over others; it presupposes a standard.” — G.K. Chesterton Science Copy Share Image
“Take the case of courage. No quality has ever so much addled the brains and tangled the definitions of merely rational sages.” — G.K. Chesterton Courage Copy Share Image
“But nearly all of the people I have ever met in this western society in which I live would agree to the… — G.K. Chesterton Life Copy Share Image
“No man ought to write at all, or even to speak at all, unless he thinks that he is in truth and… — G.K. Chesterton Truth Copy Share Image
“I mean that God bade me love one spot and serve it, and do all things however wild in praise of it,… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Every man, however wise, who begins by worshipping success, must end in mere mediocrity. This strange and paradoxical fate is involved, not… — G.K. Chesterton Every man Copy Share Image
“The people who wrote the mediaeval ballads knew more about fairies than you do. It isn't only nice things that happen in… — G.K. Chesterton Nice things Copy Share Image
“It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the… — G.K. Chesterton Every morning Copy Share Image
“All true friendliness begins with fire and food and drink and the recognition of rain or frost. ...Each human soul has in… — G.K. Chesterton Every man Copy Share Image
“If we are calm," replied the policeman, "it is the calm of organized resistance." "Eh?" said Syme, staring. "The soldier must be… — G.K. Chesterton Anger Copy Share Image
“The curse that came before history has laid on us all a tendency to be weary of wonders. If we saw the sun for the first time it would be the most fearful and beautiful of meteors. Now that we see it for the hundredth time we call it, in the hideous and blasphemous phrase of Wordsworth, "the light of… — G.K. Chesterton Darkness Copy Share
“I cannot count the pebbles in the brook. Well hath He spoken: "Swear not by thy head. Thou knowest not the hairs,"… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“This very pride in keeping his word was that he was keeping it to miscreants. It was his last triumph over these lunatics to go down into their dark room and die for something that they could not even understand. The barrel-organ seemed to give the marching tune with the energy and the mingled noises of a whole orchestra; and… — G.K. Chesterton Dark room Copy Share
“The man who said, "Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he shall not be disappointed," put the eulogy quite inadequately and even falsely. The truth "Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he shall be gloriously surprised." The man who expects nothing sees redder roses than common men can see, and greener grass, and a more startling sun. Blessed… — G.K. Chesterton Expectations Copy Share
“I shall approach. Before taking off his hat, I shall take off my own. I shall say, "The Marquis de Saint Eustache,… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“I do not know by what extraordinary mental accident modern writers so constantly connect the idea of progress with the idea of independent thinking. Progress is obviously the antithesis of independent thinking. For under independent or individualistic thinking, every man starts at the beginning, and goes, in all probability, just as far as his father before him. But if there… — G.K. Chesterton Every man Copy Share
“The truth is, I think, that they are caught in a sort of argument in a circle. Their vague philosophy says to… — G.K. Chesterton Man and woman Copy Share Image
“If it be true (as it certainly is) that a man can feel exquisite happiness in skinning a cat, then the religious philosopher can only draw one of two deductions. He must either deny the existence of God, as all atheists do; or he must deny the present union between God and man, as all Christians do. The new theologians… — G.K. Chesterton Existence of god Copy Share
