Think of all those ages through which men have had the courage to die, and then remember that we have actually fallen to talking about having the courage to live. Gilbert K. Chesterton More Quotes by Gilbert K. Chesterton More Quotes From Gilbert K. Chesterton The word good has many meanings. Gilbert K. Chesterton grand-mother yards grandmother Leaving the complications of the human breakfast-table out of account, in an elemental sense, the egg only exists to produce the chicken. But the chicken does not exist only in order to produce another egg. He may also exist to amuse himself, to praise God, and even to suggest ideas to a French dramatist. Being a conscious life, he is, or may be, valuable in himself. Gilbert K. Chesterton eggs animal order We talk of wild animals, but the wildest animal is man. Gilbert K. Chesterton wild-animal animal men For they (capitalists) hold as their chief heresy, in a coarser form, the fundamental falsehood that things are not made to be used but made to be sold. All the collapse of their commercial system in their own time has been due to that fallacy of forcing things on a market where there was no market; of continually increasing the power of supply without increasing the power of demand; of briefly, of always considering the man who sells the potato and never considering the man who eats it. Gilbert K. Chesterton potatoes demand men Science is the study of the admitted laws of existence, which cannot prove a universal negative about whether those laws could ever be suspended by something admittedly above them. It is as if we were to say that a lawyer was so deeply learned in the American Constitution that he knew there could never be a revolution in America. Gilbert K. Chesterton law science america Science boasts of the distance of its stars; of the terrific remoteness of the things of which it has to speak. But poetry and religion always insist upon the proximity, the almost menacing closeness of the things with which they are concerned. Always the Kingdom of Heaven is "At Hand." Gilbert K. Chesterton distance stars science Every act of will is an act of self-limitation. To desire action is to desire limitation. In that sense, every act is an act of self-sacrifice. When you choose anything, you reject everything else. Gilbert K. Chesterton sacrifice self desire Bigotry may be roughly defined as the anger of men who have no opinions. Gilbert K. Chesterton anger may men Mankind is not a tribe of animals to which we owe compassion. Mankind is a club to which we owe our subscription. Gilbert K. Chesterton clubs compassion animal An artist will betray himself by some sort of sincerity. Gilbert K. Chesterton sincerity betrayal artist Poets do not go mad, but chess players do. Gilbert K. Chesterton mad player chess At the bottom of all the tributes paid to democracy is the little man, walking into the little booth, with a little pencil, making a little cross on a little bit of paper. . . . Gilbert K. Chesterton democracy paper men The true object of human life is play. Gilbert K. Chesterton human-life life-is play It is very good for a man to talk about what he does not understand; as long as he understands that he does not understand it. Gilbert K. Chesterton doe men long 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. Gilbert K. Chesterton apology strong heart Life is serious all the time, but living cannot be. You may have all the solemnity you wish in your neckties, but in anything important (such as sex, death, and religion), you must have mirth or you will have madness. Gilbert K. Chesterton important wish sex The noble temptation to see too much in everything. Gilbert K. Chesterton noble too-much temptation A great deal of contemporary criticism reads to me like a man saying, 'Of course I do not like green cheese. I am very fond of brown sherry. Gilbert K. Chesterton green criticism men Before the Roman came to Rye or out to severn strode, / The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road. Gilbert K. Chesterton drunkards rolling made We all feel the riddle of the earth without anyone to point it out. The mystery of life is the plainest part of it. The clouds and curtains of darkness, the confounding vapors, these are the daily weather of this world. Gilbert K. Chesterton darkness clouds weather
