If the common man in the past had a grave respect for property, it may conceivably have been because he sometimes had some of his own. Gilbert K. Chesterton More Quotes by Gilbert K. Chesterton More Quotes From Gilbert K. Chesterton It is true that there is a thing crudely called charity, which means charity to the deserving poor; but charity to the deserving is not charity at all, but justice. It is the undeserving who require it, and the ideal either does not exist at all, or exists wholly for them. Gilbert K. Chesterton charityjusticemean We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next door neighbour. Gilbert K. Chesterton godfriendshipfunny Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers is another. Gilbert K. Chesterton literaturefictionworld The more we are certain what good is, the more we shall see good in everything. Gilbert K. Chesterton certain A child's instinct is almost perfect in the matter of fighting. The child's hero is always the man or boy who defends himself suddenly and splendidly against aggression. Gilbert K. Chesterton fightingherochildren What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place...The old humility was a spur that prevented a man from stopping; not a nail in his boot that prevented him from going on. For the old humility made a man doubtful about his efforts, which made him work harder. But the new humility makes a man doubtful about his aims, which will make him stop working altogether. Gilbert K. Chesterton hard-workhumilitymen We do not need a censorship of the press. We have a censorship by the press... It is not we who silence the press. It is the press who silences us. Gilbert K. Chesterton censorshipsilenceneeds According to most philosophers, God in making the world enslaved it. According to Christianity, in making it, He set it free. God had written, not so much a poem, but rather a play; a play he had planned as perfect, but which had necessarily been left to human actors and stage-managers, who had since made a great mess of it. Gilbert K. Chesterton actorsperfectplay A man does not know what he is saying until he knows what he is not saying. Gilbert K. Chesterton doemenknowledge For when we cease to worship God, we do not worship nothing, we worship anything. Gilbert K. Chesterton atheismatheistreligion How you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win. Gilbert K. Chesterton failureencouragementclever The Darwinian movement has made no difference to mankind, except that, instead of talking unphilosophically about philosophy, they now talk unscientifically about science. Gilbert K. Chesterton talkingphilosophyscience 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. Gilbert K. Chesterton catholicexplainingreason If you happen to read fairy tales, you will observe that one idea runs from one end of them to the other--the idea that peace and happiness can only exist on some condition. This idea, which is the core of ethics, is the core of the nursery-tales. Gilbert K. Chesterton nurserunningideas 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. Gilbert K. Chesterton stupidmenbelieve Do not enjoy yourself. Enjoy dances and theaters and joy-rides and champagne and oysters; enjoy jazz and cocktails and night-clubs if you can enjoy nothing better; enjoy bigamy and burglary and any crime in the calendar, in preference to the other alternative; but never learn to enjoy yourself. Gilbert K. Chesterton oystersjoynight The main point of Christianity was this: that Nature is not our mother: Nature is our sister. Gilbert K. Chesterton mother-naturechristianitymother Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad, but chess players do. Gilbert K. Chesterton madimaginationplayer The true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground. Gilbert K. Chesterton inspirational-lifegardenfun The Sentimentalist, roughly speaking, is the man who wants to eat his cake and have it. He has no sense of honor about ideas; he will not see that one must pay for an idea as well as for anything else. He will have them all at once in one wild intellectual harem, no matter how much they quarrel and contradict each other. Gilbert K. Chesterton cakemenideas
