Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

Christianity met the mythological search for romance by being a story and the philosophical search for truth by being a true story.

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

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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We all know that the 'divine glory of the ego' is socially a great nuisance; we all do actually value our friends for modesty, freshness, and simplicity of heart. Whatever may be the reason, we all do warmly respect humility - in other people.

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The new community which the capitalists are now constructing will be a very complete and absolute community; and one which will tolerate nothing really independent of itself.

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Correctitude implies nowadays a formal or fastidious use of words; and what is wanted is not so much the correct as the living use of words. It is the memory of the meaning of a word which is the life of the word.

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A man running after a hat is not half so ridiculous as a man running after a woman.

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Leaving the complications of the human breakfast-table out of account, in an elemental sense, the egg only exists to produce the chicken. But the chicken does not exist only in order to produce another egg. He may also exist to amuse himself, to praise God, and even to suggest ideas to a French dramatist. Being a conscious life, he is, or may be, valuable in himself.

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When once you have got hold of a vulgar joke, you may be certain that you have got hold of a subtle and spiritual idea.

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If we want to give poor people soap we must set out deliberately to give them luxuries. If we will not make them rich enough to be clean, then empathically we must do what we did with the saints. We must reverence them for being dirty.

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Suppose, my dear Chadd, suppose it is we who are the idiots because we are not afraid of devils in the dark?

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humor can get in under the door while seriousness is still fumbling at the handle

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There are no boring subjects, only disinterested minds.

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

Monotony has nothing to do with a place; monotony, either in its sensation or its infliction, is simply the quality of a person. There are no dreary sights; there are only dreary sight seers.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Sight Quotes , Bored Quotes

Christendom has had a series of revolutions and in each one of them Christianity has died. Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.

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When a woman puts up her fists to a man she is putting herself in the only posture in which he is not afraid of her.

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Over-civilization and barbarism are within an inch of each other. And a mark of both is the power of medicine-men.

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The only object of liberty is life.

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Doing nothing is sometimes one of the highest of the duties of man.

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I came to the conclusion that the optimist thought everything good except the pessimist, and that the pessimist thought everything bad, except himself.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Perspective Quotes , Pessimist Quotes