Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

An imbecile habit has arisen in modern controversy of saying that such and such a creed can be held in one age but cannot be held in another. Some dogma, we are told, was credible in the twelfth century, but is not credible in the twentieth. You might as well say that a certain philosophy can be believed on Mondays, but cannot be believed on Tuesdays. You might as well say of a view of the cosmos that it was suitable to half-past three, but not suitable to half-past four. What a man can believe depends upon his philosophy, not upon the clock or the century.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Monday Quotes , Philosophy Quotes

He is only a very shallow critic who cannot see an eternal rebel in the heart of the Conservative.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Heart Quotes , Liberty Quotes

Christianity satisfies suddenly and perfectly man's ancestral instinct for being the right way up; satisfies it supremely in this, that by its creed Joy becomes something gigantic, and Sadness something special and small.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Christian Quotes , Sadness Quotes

It is because artists do not practise, patrons do not patronize, crowds do not assemble to reverently worship the great work of Doing Nothing, that the world has lost its philosophy and even failed to invent a new religion.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Philosophy Quotes , Artist Quotes

Men do not differ much about what things they will call evils; they differ enormously about what evils they will call excusable.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Dogma is actually the only thing that cannot be separated from education. It IS education. A teacher who is not dogmatic is simply a teacher who is not teaching. There are no uneducated people; only most people are educated wrong. The true task of culture today is not a task of expansion, but of selection-and-rejection. The educationist must find a creed and teach it.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Teacher Quotes , Educational Quotes

Now there is any amount of this nonsense cropping up among American cranks. Anybody may propose to establish coercive Eugenics; or enforce psychoanalysis that is, enforce confession without absolution.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

A third-class carriage is a community, while a first-class carriage is a place of wild hermits.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Class Quotes , Community Quotes

The past is not what it was.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Past Quotes , Progress 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.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

A child's instinct is almost perfect in the matter of fighting. The child's hero is always the man or boy who defends himself suddenly and splendidly against aggression.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

The cosmos is about the smallest hole that a man can hide his head in.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

What embitters the world is not excess of criticism, but absence of self-criticism.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Self Quotes , Criticism Quotes

To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Any man who preaches real love is bound to beget hate. It is as true of democratic fraternity as a divine love; sham love ends in compromise and common philosophy; but real love has always ended in bloodshed.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Hate Quotes , Philosophy Quotes

Well, if I am not drunk, I am mad," replied Syme with perfect calm; "but I trust I can behave like a gentleman in either condition.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Drunk Quotes , Mad Quotes

There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Beauty Quotes , Broken Heart Quotes

I would give a woman not more rights, but more privileges. Instead of sending her to seek such freedom as notoriously prevails in banks and factories, I would design specially a house in which she can be free.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Rights Quotes , Giving Quotes

Modern broad-mindedness benefits the rich; and benefits nobody else.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Love is not blind; that is the last thing that it is. Love is bound; and the more it is bound the less it is blind.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Love Is Quotes , Lasts Quotes