Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

I did try to found a little heresy of my own; and when I had put the last touches to it, I discovered that it was orthodoxy.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Trying Quotes , Littles Quotes

Then I only wondered who put the toys in the stocking; now I wonder who put the stocking by the bed, and the bed in the room, and the room in the house, and the house on the planet, and the great planet in the void.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , House Quotes , Bed Quotes

A good Moslem king was one who was strict in religion, valiant in battle, just in giving judgment among his people, but not one who had the slightest objection in international matters to removing his neighbour's landmark.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Kings Quotes , People Quotes

The aim of good prose words is to mean what they say. The aim of good poetical words is to mean what they do not say.

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When learned men begin to use their reason, then I generally discover that they haven't got any.

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Theology is only thought applied to religion.

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Obviously if any actions, even a lunatic's, can be causeless, determinism is done for. If the chain of causation can be broken for a madman, it can be broken for a man.

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

The historic glory of America lies in the fact that it is the one nation that was founded like a church. That is, it was founded on a faith that was not merely summed up after it had exited, but was defined before it existed.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Lying Quotes , America Quotes

If you attempt an actual argument with a modern paper of opposite politics, you will have no answer except slanging or silence.

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To be simple is the best thing in the world.

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A great city is the place to escape the true drama of provincial life, and find solace in fantasy.

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A detective story generally describes six living men discussing how it is that a man is dead. A modern philosophic story generally describes six dead men discussing how any man can possibly be alive.

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

If a man only likes victory he must always come late for the battle.

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Whenever you remove any fence, always pause long enough to ask why it was put there in the first place.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Long Quotes , Firsts Quotes

It's not the world that's got so much worse but the news coverage that's got so much better.

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

No man must be superior to the things that are common to men.... Not only are we all in the same boat, but we are all seasick.

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

Progress is Providence without God. That is, it is a theory that everything has always perpetually gone right by accident. It is a sort of atheistic optimism, based on an everlasting coincidence far more miraculous than a miracle.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Atheist Quotes , Optimism Quotes

Exactly what the fairy tale does is this: it accustoms him for a series of clear pictures to the idea that these limitless terrors had a limit, that these shapeless enemies have enemies in the knights of God, that there is something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than strong fear.

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

Folk-lore means that the soul is sane, but that the universe is wild and full of marvels. Realism means that the world is dull and full of routine, but that the soul is sick and screaming. The problem of the fairy tale is: what will a healthy man do with a fantastic world? The problems of the modern novel is: what will a madman do with a dull world? In the fairy tales the cosmos goes mad; but the hero does not go mad. In the modern novels the hero is mad before the book begins, and suffers from the harsh steadiness and cruel sanity of the cosmos.

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

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 nail in his boot that prevented him from going on. For the old humility made a man doubtful about his efforts, which made him work harder. But the new humility makes a man doubtful about his aims, which will make him stop working altogether.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Hard Work Quotes , Humility Quotes