Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

We talk of wild animals but man is the only wild animal. It is man that has broken out. All other animals are tame animals; following the rugged respectability of the tribe or type.

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The man of the true religious tradition understands two things: liberty and obedience. The first means knowing what you really want. The second means knowing what you really trust.

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The sort of man who admires Italian art while despising Italian religion is a tourist and a cad.

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Fairy tales are more than true.

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Everyone seems to assume that the unscrupulous parts of journalism will be the frivolous or jocular parts. This is against all ethical experience. Jokes are generally honest. Complete solemnity is almost always dishonest. The writer of the snippet merely refers to a frivolous and fugitive fact in a frivolous and fugitive way. The writer of the leading article has to write about a fact he has known for 20 minutes as though he has studied it for 20 years.

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The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone. Thus some scientists care for truth; and their truth is pitiless. Thus some humanitarians only care for pity; and their pity (I am sorry to say) is often untruthful.

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The modern world is a crowd of very rapid racing cars all brought to a standstill and stuck in a block of traffic.

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Wait and see whether the religion of the Servile State is not in every case what I say: the encouragement of small virtues supporting capitalism, the discouragement of the huge virtues that defy it.

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Democracy is like blowing your nose. You may not do it well, but it's something you ought to do yourself.

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There is no obligation on us to be richer, or busier, or more efficient, or more productive, or more progressive, or any way worldlier or wealthier, if it does not make us happier.

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I left the fairy tales lying on the floor of the nursery, and I have not found any books so sensible since.

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One of the chief uses of religion is that it makes us remember our coming from darkness, the simple fact that we are created.

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It is customary to complain of the bustle and strenuousness of our epoch. But in truth the chief mark of our epoch is a profound laziness and fatigue; and the fact is that the real laziness is the cause of the apparent bustle.

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The Reformer is always right about what's wrong. However, he's often wrong about what is right.

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The man who throws a bomb is an artist, because he prefers a great moment to everything.

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I always like a dog so long as he isn't spelled backward.

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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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I've been to every park in every city and not seen a statue to a committee.

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There have been household gods and household saints and household fairies. I am not sure that there have yet been any factory gods or factory saints or factory fairies. I may be wrong, as I am no commericial expert, but I have not heard of them as yet.

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Every high civilization decays by forgetting obvious things.

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