Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

The theory of free speech, that truth is so much larger and stranger and more many-sided than we know of, that it is very much better at all costs to hear everyone's account of it, is a theory which has been justified on the whole by experiment, but which remains a very daring and even a very surprising theory. It is really one of the great discoveries of the modern time.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Equality Quotes , Discovery Quotes

Every great literature has always been allegorical - allegorical of some view of the whole universe. The 'Iliad' is only great because all life is a battle, the 'Odyssey' because all life is a journey, the Book of Job because all life is a riddle.

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Every true artist feels that he is touching transcendental truths; that his images are shadows of things seen through the veil.

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The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present.

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He had found the thing which the modern people call Impressionism, which is another name for that final scepticism which can find no floor to the universe.

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The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

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Such professions as the soldier and the lawyer ... give ample opportunity for crimes but not much for mere illusions. ... If you have lost a battle you cannot believe you have won it; if your client is hanged you cannot pretend that you have gotten him off.

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

I wish we could sometimes love the characters in real life as we love the characters in romances. There are a great many human souls whom we should accept more kindly, and even appreciate more clearly, if we simply thought of them as people in a story.

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

The true object of human life is play.

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Every one of the great revolutionists, from Isaiah to Shelley, have been optimists. They have been indignant, not about the badness of existence, but about the slowness of men in realizing its goodness.

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Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance.

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What life and death may be to a turkey is not my business; but the soul of Scrooge and the body of Cratchit are my business.

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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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There nearly always is a method in madness.

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Progress is a comparative of which we have not settled the superlative.

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War is not the best way of settling differences; it is the only way of preventing their being settled for you.

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There are two ways of getting home; and one of them is to stay there.

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Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die.

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Americans have a taste for…rocking-chairs. A flippant critic might suggest that they select rocking-chairs so that, even when they are sitting down, they need not be sitting still. Something of this restlessness in the race may really be involved in the matter; but I think the deeper significance of the rocking-chair may still be found in the deeper symbolism of the rocking-horse. I think there is behind all this fresh and facile use of wood a certain spirit that is childish in the good sense of the word; something that is innocent, and easily pleased.

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

For my part, I should be inclined to suggest that the chief object of education should be to restore simplicity. If you like to put it so, the chief object of education is not to learn things; nay, the chief object of education is to unlearn things.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Simplicity Quotes , Should Quotes