Man must have just enough faith in himself to have adventures, and just enough doubt of himself to enjoy them. Gilbert K. Chesterton More Quotes by Gilbert K. Chesterton More Quotes From Gilbert K. Chesterton Unfortunately, 19th-century scientists were just as ready to jump to the conclusion that any guess about nature was an obvious fact, as were 17th-century sectarians to jump to the conclusion that any guess about Scripture was the obvious explanation . . . . and this clumsy collision of two very impatient forms of ignorance was known as the quarrel of Science and Religion. Gilbert K. Chesterton scriptureignorancetwo 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. Gilbert K. Chesterton hatekingsmen I am not absentminded. It is the presence of mind that makes me unaware of everything else. Gilbert K. Chesterton presence-of-mindlifefunny Religious liberty might be supposed to mean that everybody is free to discuss religion. In practice it means that hardly anybody is allowed to mention it. Gilbert K. Chesterton religiouspracticemean Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated. Gilbert K. Chesterton politicalgovernmentmean We should always endeavor to wonder at the permanent thing, not at the mere exception. We should be startled by the sun, and not by the eclipse. We should wonder less at the earthquake, and wonder more at the earth. Gilbert K. Chesterton wondersunearthquakes I have known many happy marriages, but never a compatible one. The whole aim of marriage is to fight through and survive the instant when incompatibility becomes unquestionable. For a man and a woman, as such, are incompatible. Gilbert K. Chesterton happy-marriagefightingmen To be clever enough to get all that money, one must be stupid enough to want it. Gilbert K. Chesterton moneycleverfunny Madness does not come by breaking out, but by giving in; by settling down in some dirty, little, self-repeating circle of ideas; by being tamed. Gilbert K. Chesterton circlesselfdirty It is always the secure who are humble. Gilbert K. Chesterton humilityhumblekids An imbecile habit has arisen in modern controversy of saying that such and such a creed can be held in one age but cannot be held in another. Some dogma, we are told, was credible in the twelfth century, but is not credible in the twentieth. You might as well say that a certain philosophy can be believed on Mondays, but cannot be believed on Tuesdays. You might as well say of a view of the cosmos that it was suitable to half-past three, but not suitable to half-past four. What a man can believe depends upon his philosophy, not upon the clock or the century. Gilbert K. Chesterton mondayphilosophybelieve Idolatry is committed, not merely by setting up false gods, but also by setting up false devils; by making men afraid of war or alcohol, or economic law, when they should be afraid of spiritual corruption and cowardice. Gilbert K. Chesterton spiritualmenwar The Declaration of Independence dogmatically bases all rights on the fact that God created all men equal; and it is right; for if they were not created equal, they were certainly evolved unequal. There is no basis for democracy except in a dogma about the divine origin of man. Gilbert K. Chesterton independencerightsmen It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is that they can't see the problem. Gilbert K. Chesterton statisticsmathfunny We are all in the same boat, in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty. Gilbert K. Chesterton loyaltyinspiringinspirational Once I planned to write a book of poems entirely about the things in my pocket. But I found it would be too long; and the age of the great epics is past. Gilbert K. Chesterton writingbirthdaybook You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink. Gilbert K. Chesterton thanksgivingthankfulinspirational Political Economy means that everybody except politicians must be economical. Gilbert K. Chesterton politicianpoliticalmean Thanks are the highest form of thought. Gilbert K. Chesterton gratitudethank-youappreciation Progress is Providence without God. That is, it is a theory that everything has always perpetually gone right by accident. It is a sort of atheistic optimism, based on an everlasting coincidence far more miraculous than a miracle. Gilbert K. Chesterton optimismmiracleatheist
