Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

I agree with the realistic Irishman who said he preferred to prophesy after the event.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Advice Quotes , Events Quotes

Every heresy has been an effort to narrow the Church.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Effort Quotes , Church Quotes

When fishes flew and forests walked And figs grew upon thorn, Some moment when the moon was blood Then surely I was born. With monstrous head and sickening cry And ears like errant wings, The devil's walking parody On all four-footed things.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Moon Quotes , Blood Quotes

The real argument against aristocracy is that it always means the rule of the ignorant. For the most dangerous of all forms of ignorance is ignorance of work.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Literature and fiction are two entirely different things. Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Two Quotes , Luxury Quotes

Every sane man recognises that unlimited liberty is anarchy, or rather is nonentity. The civic idea of liberty is to give the citizen a province of liberty; a limitation within which a citizen is a king.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

What was wonderful about childhood is that anything in it was a wonder. It was not merely a world full of miracles; it was a miraculous world.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Childhood Quotes , Miracle Quotes

When people impute special vices to the Christian Church, they seem entirely to forget that the world (which is the only other thing there is) has these vices much more. The Church has been cruel; but the world has been much more cruel. The Church has plotted; but the world has plotted much more. The Church has been superstitious; but it has never been so superstitious as the world is when left to itself.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

The central idea of poetry is the idea of guessing right, like a child.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

The difficulty of explaining ‘why I am a Catholic’ is that there are ten thousand reasons all amounting to one reason: that Catholicism is true.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Catholic Quotes , Reason Quotes

It is a quaint comment on the notion that the English are practical and the French merely visionary, that we were rebels in arts while they were rebels in arms.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Art Quotes , Visionaries Quotes

The classes that wash most are those that work least.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

When you have really exhausted an experience you always reverence and love it. The two things that nearly all of us have thoroughly and really been through are childhood and youth. And though we would not have them back again on any account, we feel that they are both beautiful, because we have drunk them dry.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Love Quotes , Beautiful Quotes

The supreme adventure is being born. There we do walk suddenly into a splendid and startling trap... When we step into the family, by the act of being born, we do step into a world which is incalculable, into a world which has its own strange laws, into a world which could do without us, into a world we have not made. In other words, when we step into the family we step into a fairy-tale.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Adventure Quotes , Law Quotes

Progress should mean that we are always changing the world to fit the vision, instead we are always changing the vision.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

The vulgar man is always the most distinguished, for the very desire to be distinguished is vulgar.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Men Quotes , Vulgarity Is Quotes

Do not be proud of the fact that your grandmother was shocked at something which your are accustomed to seeing or hearing without being shocked. ... It may be that your grandmother was an extremely lively and vital animal and that you are a paralytic.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Grandmother Quotes , Animal 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

I believe what really happens in history is this: the old man is always wrong; and the young people are always wrong about what is wrong with him. The practical form it takes is this: that, while the old man may stand by some stupid custom, the young man always attacks it with some theory that turns out to be equally stupid.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Why should ANYTHING go right; even observation and deduction? Why should not good logic be as misleading as bad logic? They are both movements in the brain of a bewildered ape?

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Brain Quotes , Anything Goes Quotes