Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

Aristocracy is an atmosphere; it is sometimes a healthy atmosphere; but it is very hard to say when it becomes an unhealthy atmosphere. You can prove that a man is not the son of a king, or that he is not the delegate of a definite number of people. But you cannot prove that a man is not a gentleman.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Kings Quotes , Son Quotes

To downgrade the human mind is bad theology.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Mind Quotes , Theology Quotes

It is ludicrous to suppose that the more sceptical we are the more we see good in everything. It is clear that the more we are certain what good is, the more we shall see good in everything.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Certain Quotes , Skeptic Quotes

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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But since he stood for England And knew what England means, Unless you give him bacon You must not give him beans.

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[No society can survive the socialist] fallacy that there is an absolutely unlimited number of inspired officials and an absolutely unlimited amount of money to pay them.

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Truth, of course, must of necessity be stranger than fiction, for we have made fiction to suit ourselves.

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Our civilization has decided that determining the guilt or innocence of men is a thing too important to be trusted to trained men. When it wants a library catalogued, or the solar system discovered, or any trifle of that kind, it uses up its specialists. But when it wishes anything done which is really serious, it collects twelve of the ordinary men standing round. The same thing was done, if I remember right, by the Founder of Christianity.

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A sober man may become a drunkard through being a coward. A brave man may become a coward through being a drunkard.

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

It is the decisive people who have become civilised; it is the indecisive, otherwise called the higher sceptics, or the idealistic doubters, who have remained barbarians.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , People Quotes , Barbarians Quotes

I like the Cyclostyle ink; it is so inky. I do not think there is anyone who takes quite such a fierce pleasure in things being themselves as I do. The startling wetness of water excites and intoxicates me: the fieriness of fire, the steeliness of steel, the unutterable muddiness of mud. It is just the same with people.... When we call a man "manly" or a woman "womanly" we touch the deepest philosophy.

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Research is the search of people who don't know what they want.

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The full potentialities of human fury cannot be reached until a friend of both parties tactfully intervenes.

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Men rush towards complexity, but they yearn towards simplicity. They try to be kings; but they dream of being shepherds.

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A man is angry at a libel because it is false, but at a satire because it is true.

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Customs are generally unselfish. Habits are nearly always selfish.

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The books that influence the world are those that it has not read.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Book Quotes , World Quotes

Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective. Unless a man starts on the strange assumption that he has never existed before, it is quite certain that he will never exist afterwards.

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The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it.

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The man who says, 'my country right or wrong' is like the man who says, 'my mother drunk or sober'

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Mother Quotes , Country Quotes