Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

When people talk as if the Crusades were nothing more than an aggressive raid against Islam, they seem to forget in the strangest way that Islam itself was only an aggressive raid against the old and ordered civilization in these parts. I do not say it in mere hostility to the religion of Mahomet; I am fully conscious of many values and virtues in it; but certainly it was Islam that was the invasion and Christendom that was the thing invaded.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Destiny is but a phrase of the weak human heart - the dark apology for every error. The strong and virtuous admit no destiny. On earth conscience guides; in heaven God watches. And destiny is but the phantom we invoke to silence the one and dethrone the other.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

We are all ordinary people. And it's the extraordinary people Who know it.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

All good writers express the state of their souls, even (as occurs in some cases of very good writers) if it is a state of damnation.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Soul Quotes , Damnation Quotes

It is always the secure who are humble.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Humble Quotes , Kids Quotes

They hate kings, they hate priests, they hate soldiers, they hate sailors. They distrust men of science, they denounce the middle classes, they despair of working men, but they adore humanity. Only they always speak of humanity as if it were a curious foreign nation. They are dividing themselves more and more from men to exalt the strange race of mankind. They are ceasing to be human in the effort to be humane.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

It was the mystical dogma of Bentham and Adam Smith and the rest, that some of the worst of human passions would turn out to be all for the best. It was the mysterious doctrine that selfishness would do the work of unselfishness.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Passion Quotes , Selfishness Quotes

The wine they drink in Paradise They make in Haute Lorraine.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Wine Quotes , Paradise Quotes

Circumstances break men's bones; it has never been shown that they break men's optimism.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

There is nothing the matter with Americans except their ideals. The real American is all right; it is the ideal American who is all wrong.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Those who leave the tradition of truth do not escape into something which we call Freedom. They only escape into something else, which we call Fashion.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Fashion Quotes

When "everyone knows" that something is so, it is always more interesting and often illuminating to assumeexactly the opposite, and to see where that leads.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Opposites Quotes , Interesting Quotes

An artist will betray himself by some sort of sincerity.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

The free man owns himself. He can damage himself with either eating or drinking; he can ruin himself with gambling. If he does he is certainly a damn fool, and he might possibly be a damned soul; but if he may not, he is not a free man any more than a dog.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Dog Quotes , Drinking Quotes

A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Men Quotes , Were Meant To Be Quotes

America has a new delicacy, a coarse, rank refinement.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , America Quotes , Delicacy Quotes

When a man ceases to believe in god, he does not believe in nothing. He believes in everything.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Dogma does not mean the absence of thought, but the end of thought.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

The human race is always trying this dodge of making everything entirely easy; but the difficulty which it shifts off one thing it shifts to another.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Race Quotes , Always Trying Quotes