Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

He wondered why the pelican was the symbol of charity, except it was that it wanted a good deal of charity to admire a pelican.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Charity Quotes , Pelicans Quotes

Our society is so abnormal that the normal man never dreams of having the normal occupation of looking after his own property. When he chooses a trade, he chooses one of the ten thousand trades that involve looking after other people's property.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Dream Quotes , Men Quotes

The books that influence the world are those that it has not read.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Book Quotes , World Quotes

Students of popular science... are always insisting that Christianity and Buddhism are very much alike, especially Buddhism. This is generally believed, and I believed it myself until I read a book giving the reasons for it.

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When belief in God becomes difficult, the tendency is to turn away from Him; but in heaven's name to what?

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The man who says, 'my country right or wrong' is like the man who says, 'my mother drunk or sober'

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Mother Quotes , Country Quotes

I do not know much about Mohammed or Mohammedanism. I do not take the Koran to bed with me every night. But, if I did on some one particular night, there is one sense at least in which I know what I should not find there. I apprehend that I should not find the work abounding in strong encouragements to the worship of idols; that the praises of polytheism would not be loudly sung; that the character of Mohammed would not be subjected to anything resembling hatred and derision; and that the great modern doctrine of the unimportance of religion would not be needlessly emphasised.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Encouragement Quotes , Strong Quotes

By a curious confusion, many modern critics have passed from the proposition that a masterpiece may be unpopular to the other proposition that unless it is unpopular it cannot be a masterpiece.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Confusion Quotes , May Quotes

I should say that psycho-analysis was confession without absolution.

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If there is one thing worse than the modern weakening of major morals, it is the modern strengthening of minor morals.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Morality Quotes , Modern Quotes

I don't need a church to tell me I'm wrong where I already know I'm wrong; I need a Church to tell me I'm wrong where I think I'm right

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Thinking Quotes , Church Quotes

All things are from God; and above all, reason and imagination and the great gifts of the mind. They are good in themselves; and we must not altogether forget their origin even in their perversion.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Imagination Quotes , Mind Quotes

What is education? Properly speaking, there is no such thing as education. Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another. Whatever the soul is like, it will have to be passed on somehow, consciously or unconsciously, and that transition may be called education. ... What we need is to have a culture before we hand it down. In other words, it is a truth, however sad and strange, that we cannot give what we have not got, and cannot teach to other people what we do not know ourselves.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Wisdom Quotes , Hands Quotes

If there is one fact we really can prove, from the history that we really do know, it is that despotism can be a development, often a late development and very often indeed the end of societies that have been highly democratic. A despotism may almost be defined as a tired democracy. As fatigue falls on a community, the citizens are less inclined for that eternal vigilance which has truly been called the price of liberty; and they prefer to arm only one single sentinel to watch the city while they sleep.

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Coincidence is a spiritual pun.

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It is often a mistake to combine two pleasures, because pleasures, like pains, can act as counter-irri-tants to each other.

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There is more simplicity in the man who eats caviar on impulse than in the man who eats Grape-Nuts on principle.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Peace Quotes , Men Quotes

If Christianity should happen to be true - that is to say, if its God is the real God of the universe - then defending it may mean talking about anything and everything.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Real Quotes , Mean Quotes

Cleanliness is not next to godliness nowadays, for cleanliness is made an essential and godliness is regarded as an offence.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Essentials Quotes , Next Quotes

At any innocent tea-table we may easily hear a man say, "Life is not worth living." We regard it as we regard the statement that it is a fine day; nobody thinks that it can possibly have any serious effect on the man or on the world. And yet if that utterance were really believed, the world would stand on its head.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Men Quotes , Thinking Quotes