Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes - Page 7

• There are those who hate Christianity and call their hatred an all-embracing love for all religions.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Hate, If There Is A God, Christian Inspirational

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• Love means to love that which is unlovable; or it is no virtue at all.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Love, Mean, Humility

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• 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

  Monday, Philosophy, Believe

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.55, Simon and Schuster

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• Eugenics asserts that all men must be so stupid that they cannot manage their own affairs; and also so clever that they can manage each other's.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Clever, Stupid, Men

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• Modern toleration is really a tyranny. It is a tyranny because it is a silence.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Silence, Modern, Tyranny

  Illustrated London News, 10 Oct. 1908

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• The main point of Christianity was this: that Nature is not our mother: Nature is our sister.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Mother, Mother Nature, Christianity

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.84, Simon and Schuster

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• Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Art, Lying, Long

  Tremendous Trifles (1909) "On Lying in Bed"

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• 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

  Earthquakes, Sun, Wonder

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• There are some desires that are not desirable.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Desire, Morality, Desirable

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.92, Simon and Schuster

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• One can sometimes do good by being the right person in the wrong place.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Sometimes, Persons, Right Person

  "The Sins of Prince Saradine: A Father Brown Mystery". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, 1911.

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• Let a man walk ten miles steadily on a hot summer's day along a dusty English road, and he will soon discover why beer was invented.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Summer, Beer, Men

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• Modern intelligence won't accept anything on authority. But it will accept anything without authority.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Modern, Authority, Accepting

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.100, Simon and Schuster

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• 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

  Ignorance, Two, Scripture

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• The chief object of education is not to learn things but to unlearn things.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Education, Learning, Justice

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• The Mass is very long and tiresome unless one loves God.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Long, God Love, One Love

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• No man's really any good till he knows how bad he is, or might be.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Men, Might, Know How

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (1927). “The Secret of Father Brown”

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• Tolerance is a virtue of people who don't believe in anything anymore.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Believe, People, Tolerance

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• There is no way in which a man can earn a star or deserve a sunset.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Stars, Sunset, Men

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• When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Christmas, Gratitude, Children

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• One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Stars, Knowledge, Acceptance

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.38, Simon and Schuster

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• A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Men, Were Meant To Be, Doubtful

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

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• Idolatry is when you worship what you should use, and use what you should worship.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Use, Worship, Should

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• Life is indeed terribly complicated—to a man who has lost his principles.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Men, Principles, Life Is

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• When a politician is in opposition he is an expert on the means to some end; and when he is in office he is an expert on the obstacles to it.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Mean, Office, Experts

  Illustrated London News, April 6, 1918.

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• It is true that there is a thing crudely called charity, which means charity to the deserving poor; but charity to the deserving is not charity at all, but justice. It is the undeserving who require it, and the ideal either does not exist at all, or exists wholly for them.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Mean, Justice, Charity

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (1909). “Heretics”

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