Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

Tradition is only democracy extended through time; it may be defined as an extension of the franchise. Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who are merely walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by accident of death. Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our father.

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Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.

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Religious liberty might be supposed to mean that everybody is free to discuss religion. In practice it means that hardly anybody is allowed to mention it.

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We all feel the riddle of the earth without anyone to point it out. The mystery of life is the plainest part of it. The clouds and curtains of darkness, the confounding vapors, these are the daily weather of this world.

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Man knows that there are in the soul tints more bewildering, more numberless, and more nameless that the colors of an autumn forest....Yet he seriously believes that these things can every one of them , in all their tones and semi-tones, in all their blends and unions, be accurately represented by an arbitrary system of grunts and squeals. He believes that an ordinary civilized stockbroker can really produce out of his own inside noises which denote all the mysteries of memory and all the agonies of desire.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Memories Quotes , Believe Quotes

When you with velvets mantled o'er, Defy December's tempests frore, Oh! spare one garment from your store, To clothe the poor at Christmas.

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It is very good for a man to talk about what he does not understand; as long as he understands that he does not understand it.

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The true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground.

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Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.

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The great misfortune of the modern English is not at all that they are more boastful than other people (they are not); it is that they are boastful about those particular things which nobody can boast of without losing them.

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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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By all men bond to Nothing, Being slaves without a lord, By one blind idiot world obeyed, Too blind to be abhorred.

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One can no more have a private religion than one can have a private sun or a private moon.

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There is but an inch of difference between a cushioned chamber and a padded cell.

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As to the doubt of the soul I discover it to be false: a mood not a conclusion. My conclusion is the Faith. Corporate, organized, a personality, teaching. A thing, not a theory. It.

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Nothing is certain by uncertainty.

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Literature and fiction are two entirely different things. Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.

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You cannot grow a beard in a moment of passion.

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Some of the most frantic lies on the face of life are told with modesty and restraint; for the simple reason that only modesty and restraint will save them.

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

Blasphemy is an artistic effect, because blasphemy depends upon a philosophical conviction. Blasphemy depends upon belief and is fading with it. If any one doubts this, let him sit down seriously and try to think blasphemous thoughts about Thor.

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