Quotessence
Home / Books / The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton

The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton

Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton · 50 quotes · Men, Ifs, World

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenIfsWorldModernPeopleMayChristianitySaidDoeMeanChristianHas BeensOrthodoxyShouldThinkingWayBelieveBookCertainDoubt

The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

“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.”

MenBelieveWellsPhilosophyMightAgePastCertainThreeViewsHalfFourModernCenturyDependsHabitClockCosmosCreedsDogmaMondayControversySuitableTuesdayCredibleImbeciles
Book:The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton
Create image

“Ideas are dangerous, but the man to whom they are least dangerous is the man of ideas. He is acquainted with ideas, and moves among them like a lion-tamer. Ideas are dangerous, but the man to whom they are most dangerous is the man of no ideas. The man of no ideas will find the first idea fly to his head like wine to the head of a teetotaller.”

MenFirstsIdeasMovingDangerousHe ManWineNo IdeaLions
Book:The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton
Create image

“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.”

MenWorldEvilInterestSinExistenceHe ManConcernedUltimateAbsolutesSuicideLoyaltyWipeRefusalOath
Book:The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton
Create image

“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.”

IfsMenImportantMatterSufferingMankindCrossesIndependentRuinsConvinceExaminationSympatheticCompulsoryConvince Us
Book:The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton
Create image

“At any innocent tea-table we may easily hear a man say, "Life is not worth living." We regard it as we regard the statement that it is a fine day; nobody thinks that it can possibly have any serious effect on the man or on the world. And yet if that utterance were really believed, the world would stand on its head.”

IfsThinkingMenWorldMayLife IsEffectsHe ManSeriousFineRegardTablesStatementsInnocentTeaWorth LivingUtteranceLife Is Not Worth LivingFine Day
Book:The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton
Create image

“You've got that eternal idiotic idea that if anarchy came it would come from the poor. Why should it? The poor have been rebels, but they have never been anarchists; they have more interest than any one else in there being some decent government. The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn't; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes been objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all. Aristocrats were always anarchists, as you can see from the barons' wars.”

IfsMenShouldHas BeensIdeasWarCountrySometimesGovernmentInterestPoorRichEternalDecentGoing AwayAnarchyRebelStakesAnarchistRich ManPoor ManIdioticGuineaYacht
Book:The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton
Create image

“You!" he cried. "You never hated because you never lived. I know what you are all of you, from first to last--you are the people in power! You are the police--the great, fat smiling men in blue and buttons! You are the Law, and you have never been broken. But is there a free soul alive that does not long to break you, only because you have never been broken?”

PeopleKnowsMenFirstsLongDoeSoulLastsLawBreakAliveBrokenPoliceBlueFatsHatedCriedButtons
Book:The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton
Create image

“I said to him, "Shall I tell you where the men are who believe most in themselves? For I can tell you. I know of men who believe in themselves more colossally than Napoleon or Caesar. I know where flames the fixed star of certainty and success. I can guide you to the thrones of the Super-men. The men who really believe in themselves are all in lunatic asylums.”

KnowsMenBelieveSaidI CanStarsGuidesCertaintyFlamesFixedThronesLunaticAsylumsLunatic Asylums
Book:The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton
Create image

“It is not merely true that a creed unites men. Nay, a difference of creed unites men - so long as it is a clear difference. A boundary unites. Many a magnanimous Moslem and chivalrous Crusader must have been nearer to each other, because they were both dogmatists, than any two agnostics. "I say God is One," and "I say God is One but also Three," that is the beginning of a good quarrelsome, manly friendship.”

MenLongHas BeensTwoThreeFriendshipDifferencesClearBoundariesCreedsManlyMagnanimous
Book:The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton
Create image

“Modern masters of science are much impressed with the need of beginning all inquiry with a fact. The ancient masters of religion were quite equally impressed with that necessity. They began with the fact of sin-a fact as practical as potatoes. Whether or not man could be washed in miraculous waters, there was no doubt at any rate that he wanted washing.”

MenNeedsFactsWantedScienceWaterSinDoubtModernMastersRateAncientPracticalsNo DoubtImpressedInquiryPotatoesMiraculousWashing
Book:The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton
Create image

“Men can construct a science with very few instruments, or with very plain instruments; but no one on earth could construct a science with unreliable instruments. A man might work out the whole of mathematics with a handful of pebbles, but not with a handful of clay which was always falling apart into new fragments, and falling together into new combinations. A man might measure heaven and earth with a reed, but not with a growing reed.”

MenWholeMightEarthTogetherFallHeavenGrowingMathematicsInstrumentsWork OutCombinationConstructsFalling ApartClayFragmentsHandfulMeasurementHeaven And EarthPebblesReedsUnreliable
Book:The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton
Create image

“The idea of private property universal but private, the idea of families free but still families, of domesticity democratic but still domestic, of one man one house - this remains the real vision and magnet of mankind. The world may accept something more official and general, less human and intimate. But the world will be like a broken-hearted woman who makes a humdrum marriage because she may not make a happy one; Socialism may be the world's deliverance, but it is not the world's desire.”

MenWorldHumansMayStillsIdeasRealInspirationDesireFaithHouseAcceptingVisionMankindBrokenUniversalRemainsPropertyDemocraticChristian InspirationalSocialismIntimateOfficialsOne ManHeartedPrivate PropertyDeliveranceMagnetBroken HeartedDomesticityHumdrum
Book:The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton
Create image