Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes - Page 15

• Now it has appeared to me unfair that humanity should be engaged perpetually in calling all those things bad which have been good enough to make other things better, in everlastingly kicking down the ladder by which it has climbed. It has appeared to me that progress should be something else besides a continual parricide; therefore I have investigated the dust-heaps of humanity, and found a treasure in all of them. I have found that humanity is not incidentally engaged, but eternally and systematically engaged, in throwing gold into the gutter and diamonds into the sea.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Dust, Sea, Humanity

  "The Defendant". Book by G. K. Chesterton, 1901.

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• Psychoanalysis is a science conducted by lunatics for lunatics. They are generally concerned with proving that people are irresponsible; and they certainly succeed in proving that some people are

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  People, Succeed, Prove

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• It is human to err; and the only final and deadly error, among all our errors, is denying that we have ever erred.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Errors, Finals, Humans

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• Blasphemy is an artistic effect, because blasphemy depends upon a philosophical conviction. Blasphemy depends upon belief and is fading with it. If any one doubts this, let him sit down seriously and try to think blasphemous thoughts about Thor.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Philosophical, Thinking, Doubt

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.129, Simon and Schuster

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• There are no words to express the abyss between isolation and having one ally.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Loneliness, Allies, Isolation

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.204, Simon and Schuster

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• My brother, Cecil Edward Chesterton, was born when I was about five years old; and, after a brief pause, began to argue. He continued to argue to the end. I am glad to think that through all those years we never stopped arguing; and we never once quarreled. Perhaps the principal objection to a quarrel is that it interrupts an argument.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Brother, Thinking, Years

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• [Buddhism and Christianity] are in one sense parallel and equal; as a mound and a hollow, as a valley and a hill. There is a sense in which that sublime despair is the only alternative to that divine audacity. It is even true that the truly spiritual and intellectual man sees it as sort of dilemma; a very hard and terrible choice. There is little else on earth that can compare with these for completeness. And he who does not climb the mountain of Christ does indeed fall into the abyss of Buddha.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Spiritual, Fall, Buddhism

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• To be wrong, and to be carefully wrong, that is the definition of decadence.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Definitions, Decadence

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• Individually, men may present a more or less rational appearance, eating, sleeping, and scheming. But humanity a a whole is changeful, mystical, fickle, delightful. Men are men, but Man is a woman.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Sleep, Men, Humanity

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• A teacher who is not dogmatic is simply a teacher who is not teaching.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Teacher, Retirement, Teaching

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• Around every corner is another gift waiting to surprise us, and it will surprise us if we can achieve control over our natural tendencies to make comparisons [to things that are better rather than things that are worse], to take things for granted [rather than imagining how much worse things would be if they weren't there and so feeling grateful], and to feel entitled!

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Grateful, Waiting, Feelings

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• The first two facts which a healthy boy or girl feels about sex are these: first that it is beautiful and then that it is dangerous.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Love, Beautiful, Girl

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• The perplexity of life arises from there being too many interesting things in it for us to be interested properly in any of them.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Science, Interesting, Decision

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• All architecture is great architecture after sunset; perhaps architecture is really a nocturnal art, like the art of fireworks.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Art, Sunset, Bad Ass

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• Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Baby, Children, Dragons

  "Tremendous Trifles". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, 1909.

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• A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been reversed. Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert - himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt - the Divine Reason.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Men, Doubt, Doe

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.21, Simon and Schuster

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• The sincere love of books has nothing to do with cleverness or stupidity any more than any other sincere love. It is a quality of character, a freshness, a power of pleasure, a power of faith. A silly person may delight in reading masterpieces just as a silly person may delight in picking flowers. A fool may be in love with a poet as he may be in love with a woman.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Flower, Silly, Book

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• The position we have now reached is this: starting from the State, we try to remedy the failures of all the families, all the nurseries, all the schools, all the workshops, all the secondary institutions that once had some authority of their own. Everything is ultimately brought into the Law Courts. We are trying to stop the leak at the other end.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  School, Law, Trying

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• There is one thing which gives radiance to everything. It is the idea of something around the corner.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Hope, Ideas, Giving

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• The criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Artist, Creative, Criticism

  The Innocence of Father Brown "The Blue Cross" (1911)

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• Self-denial is the test and definition of self-government.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Self, Government, Culture

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• Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances which we know to be desperate.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Motivational, Encouraging, Cheerful

  "The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton".

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• The telescope makes the world smaller; it is only the microscope that makes it larger.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  World, Telescopes, Microscopes

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.142, Simon and Schuster

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• The function of the imagination is not to make strange things settled, so much as to make settled things strange.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Imagination, Strange, Function

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• We talk of wild animals but man is the only wild animal. It is man that has broken out. All other animals are tame animals; following the rugged respectability of the tribe or type.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Animal, Men, Broken

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.109, Simon and Schuster

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