Nothing is so remote from us as the thing which is not old enough to be history and not new enough to be news. Gilbert K. Chesterton More Quotes by Gilbert K. Chesterton More Quotes From Gilbert K. Chesterton Lord! what a strange world in which a man cannot remain unique even by taking the trouble to go mad! Gilbert K. Chesterton maduniquemen America has a genius for the encouragement of fame. Gilbert K. Chesterton geniusencouragementamerica Bigotry is an incapacity to conceive seriously the alternative to a proposition. Gilbert K. Chesterton propositionsincapacityalternatives What is called matriarchy is simply moral anarchy, in which the mother alone remains fixed because all the fathers are fugitive and irresponsible. Gilbert K. Chesterton anarchymotherfather Anyone who is not an anarchist agrees with having a policeman at the corner of the street; but the danger at present is that of finding the policeman half-way down the chimney or even under the bed. Gilbert K. Chesterton bedhalfway There are two kinds of peacemakers in the modern world; and they are both, though in various ways, a nuisance. The first peacemaker is the man who goes about saying that he agrees with everybody. He confuses everybody. The second peacemaker is the man who goes about saying that everybody agrees with him. He enrages everybody. Between the two of them they produce a hundred times more disputes and distractions than we poor pugnacious people would ever have thought of in our lives. Gilbert K. Chesterton mentwopeople There are two kinds of rebellion. The first is one in which the slave demands something that the tyrant has got. The second is one in which he demands something that the tyrant has not got. Gilbert K. Chesterton tyrantsdemandtwo A fad or heresy is the exaltation of something which even if true, is secondary or temporary in its nature against those things which are essential and eternal, those things which always prove themselves true in the long run. In short, it is the setting up of the mood against the mind. Gilbert K. Chesterton mindrunninglong The sort of man who admires Italian art while despising Italian religion is a tourist and a cad. Gilbert K. Chesterton italianmenart I might inform those humanitarians who have a nightmare of new and needless babies (for some humanitarians have that sort of horror of humanity) that if the recent decline in the birth-rate were continued for a certain time, it might end in there being no babies at all; which would console them very much. Gilbert K. Chesterton birth-ratehumanitybaby Stated baldly, charity certainly means one of two things–pardoning unpardonable acts, or loving unlovable people. Gilbert K. Chesterton twomeanpeople A strange fanaticism fills our time: the fanatical hatred of morality, especially of Christian morality. Gilbert K. Chesterton moralityhatredchristian The modern world is not evil; in some ways the modern world is far too good. It is full of wild and wasted virtues. When a religious scheme is shattered (as Christianity was shattered at the Reformation), it is not merely the vices that are let loose. The vices are, indeed, let loose, and they wander and do damage. But the virtues are let loose also; and the virtues wander more wildly, and the virtues do more terrible damage. The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone. Gilbert K. Chesterton religiouschristianevil 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. Gilbert K. Chesterton specialchristianpeople The great ideals of the past failed not by being outlived (which must mean over-lived), but by not being lived enough. Mankind has not passed through the Middle Ages. Rather mankind has retreated from the Middle Ages in reaction and rout. The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried. Gilbert K. Chesterton christianmeanpast Christianity, whatever else it is, is an explosion. Unless it is sensational there is simply no sense in it. Unless the Gospel sounds like a gun going off it has not been uttered at all. Gilbert K. Chesterton gunchristianitysound If a man does not talk to himself, it is because he is not worth talking to. Gilbert K. Chesterton doetalkingmen There are no wise few. Every aristocracy that has ever existed has behaved, in all essential points, exactly like a small mob. Gilbert K. Chesterton aristocracyessentialswise The rich are the scum of the earth in every country. Gilbert K. Chesterton scum-of-the-earthrichcountry The old assumption of the approximate impossibility of war really rested on a similar assumption about the impossibility of evil-and especially of evil in high places. Gilbert K. Chesterton assumptionevilwar
