Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

A dead thing goes with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Faith Quotes , Moral 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.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Way Quotes , Revolution Quotes

Men always talk about the most important things to perfect strangers. In the perfect stranger we perceive man himself; the image of a God is not disguised by resemblances to an uncle or doubts of wisdom of a mustache.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

The Mass is not only about God becoming man, it is about Man becoming more himself.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

All literary style, especially national style, is made up of such coincidences, which are a spiritual sort of puns. That is why style is untranslatable.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Spiritual Quotes , Style Quotes

One elephant having a trunk was odd; but all elephants having trunks looked like a plot.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Elephants Quotes , Plot Quotes

Business, especially big business, is now organized like an army. It is, as some would say, a sort of mild militarism without bloodshed; as I say, a militarism without the military virtues.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Business Quotes , Military Quotes

Obviously if any actions, even a lunatic's, can be causeless, determinism is done for. If the chain of causation can be broken for a madman, it can be broken for a man.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Latter-day scepticism is fond of calling itself progressive; but scepticism is really reactionary. Scepticism goes back; it attempts to unsettle what has already been settled. Instead of trying to break up new fields with its plough, it simply tries to break up the plough.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Trying Quotes , Calling Quotes

Boyhood is a most complex and incomprehensible thing. Even when one has been through it, one does not understand what it was. A man can never quite understand a boy, even when he has been the boy.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

All science, even the divine science, is a sublime detective story. Only it is not set to detect why a man is dead; but the darker secret of why he is alive.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

They have invented a phrase, a phrase that is a black and white contradiction in two words - 'free-love' - as if a lover ever had been, or ever could be, free.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Black And White Quotes , Two Quotes

There is less difference than many suppose between the ideal Socialist system, in which the big businesses are run by the State, and the present Capitalist system, in which the State is run by the big businesses.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Running Quotes , Differences Quotes

America has a genius for the encouragement of fame.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Now there is any amount of this nonsense cropping up among American cranks. Anybody may propose to establish coercive Eugenics; or enforce psychoanalysis that is, enforce confession without absolution.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Eugenics Quotes , May Quotes

The modern world has far too little understanding of the art of keeping young. Its notion of progress has been to pile one thing on top of another, without caring if each thing was crushed in turn. People forgot that the human soul can enjoy a thing most when there is time to think about it and be thankful for it. And by crowding things together they lost the sense of surprise; and surprise is the secret of joy.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Man seems to be capable of great virtues but not of small virtues; capable of defying his torturer but not of keeping his temper.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

The word 'heresy' not only means no longer being wrong; it practically means being clear-headed and courageous. The word 'orthodoxy' not only no longer means being right; it practically means being wrong

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

It is a mathematical fact that if a line be not perfectly directed towards a point, it will actually go further away from it as it comes nearer to it.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Lines Quotes , Facts Quotes

The average woman is at the head of something with which she can do as she likes; the average man has to obey orders and do nothing else.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Women Quotes , Average Quotes