Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes - Page 18

• No sane person, I hope, would accuse me of saying that every Distributist must drink beer; especially if he could brew his own cider or found claret better for his health. But I do most emphatically scorn and scout the vulgar refinement that regards beer as something unseemly and humiliating. And I would shout the name of beer a hundred times a day, to shock all the snobs who have so shameful a sense of shame.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Beer, Names, Cider

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• The historic glory of America lies in the fact that it is the one nation that was founded like a church. That is, it was founded on a faith that was not merely summed up after it had exited, but was defined before it existed.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Lying, America, Church

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• As an explanation of the world materialism has a sort of insane simplicity. It has the quality of a madman's arguments; we have at once the sense of it covering everything and the sense of it leaving everything out.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Simplicity, Leaving, Insane

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.15, Simon and Schuster

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• The sceptic ultimately undermines democracy (1) because he can see no significance in death and such things of a literal equality; (2) because he introduces different first principles, making debate impossible: and debate is the life of democracy; (3) because the fading of the images of sacred persons leaves a man too prone to be a respecter of earthly persons; (4) because there will be more, not less, respect for human rights if they can be treated as divine rights.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Men, Rights, Divine Right

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• This is, first and last, the real value of Christmas; in so far as the mythology remains at all it is a kind of happy mythology. Personally, of course, I believe in Santa Claus; but it is the season of forgiveness, and I will forgive others for not doing so.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Real, Believe, Forgiving

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• There cannot be a nation of millionaires, and there never has been a nation of Utopian comrades; but there have been any number of nations of tolerably contented peasants.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Numbers, Peasants, Millionaire

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• The most unfathomable schools and sages have never attained to the gravity which dwells in the eyes of a baby of three months old. It is the gravity of astonishment at the universe, and astonishment at the universe is not mysticism, but a transcendent common-sense. The fascination of children lies in this: that with each of them all things are remade, and the universe is put again upon its trial.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Baby, Children, Lying

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

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• The men who really believe in themselves are all in lunatic asylums.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Military, Believe, Army

  Orthodoxy (1908) ch. 2

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• From the standpoint of any sane person, the present problem of capitalist concentration is not only a question of law, but of criminal law, not to mention criminal lunacy.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Law, Criminals, Problem

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• ...It's natural to believe in the supernatural. It never feels natural to accept only natural things.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Believe, Natural, Accepting

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• The materialist is sure that history has been simply and solely a chain of causation, just as the [lunatic] is quite sure that he is simply and solely a chicken. Materialists and madmen never have doubts.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Doubt, Chickens, Chains

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.16, Simon and Schuster

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• Modern broad-mindedness benefits the rich; and benefits nobody else.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Benefits, Morality, Rich

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• A man cannot be wise enough to be a great artist without being wise enough to wish to be a philosopher.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Wise, Wisdom, Artist

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (1909). “Heretics”

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• But a somewhat more liberal and sympathetic examination of mankind will convince us that the cross is even older than the gibbet, that voluntary suffering was before and independent of compulsory; and in short that in most important matters a man has always been free to ruin himself if he chose.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Independent, Men, Convince Us

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.316, Simon and Schuster

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• A madman is not someone who has lost his reason but someone who has lost everything but his reason

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Lost Everything, Reason, Lost

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• Not only is suicide a sin, it is the sin. It is the ultimate and absolute evil, the refusal to take an interest in existence; the refusal to take the oath of loyalty to life. The man who kills a man, kills a man. The man who kills himself, kills all men. As far as he is concerned he wipes out the world.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Loyalty, Suicide, Men

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.53, Simon and Schuster

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• London is a riddle. Paris is an explanation.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Paris, London, Riddle

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• I will go forth as a real outlaw," he said, "and as men do robbery on the highway I will do right on the highway; and it will be counted a wilder crime.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Real, Men, Crime

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• A crown of roses is also a crown of thorns.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Rose, Crowns, Thorns

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• Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he shall be gloriously surprised.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Blessed, Expectations

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.147, Simon and Schuster

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• Our society is so abnormal that the normal man never dreams of having the normal occupation of looking after his own property. When he chooses a trade, he chooses one of the ten thousand trades that involve looking after other people's property.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Dream, Men, People

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• The scientific facts, which were supposed to contradict the faith in the nineteenth century, are nearly all of them regarded as unscientific fictions in the twentieth century.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Fiction, Facts, Century

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• No one can understand Paris and its history who does not understand that its fierceness is the balance and justification of its frivolity. It is called a city of pleasure; but it may also very specially be called a city of pain. The crown of roses is also a crown of thorns. Its people are too prone to hurt others, but quite ready also to hurt themselves. They are martyrs for religion, they are martyrs for irreligion; they are even martyrs for immorality.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Hurt, Pain, Cities

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• Pride juggles with her toppling towers, They strike the sun and cease, But the firm feet of humility They grip the ground like trees.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Humility, Pride, Feet

  Gilbert Keith Chesterton, “The Ballad Of The White Horse”

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• For children are innocent and love justice, while most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Love, Children, Justice

  "The Coloured Lands". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, 1938.

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