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Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes - Page 20

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There have been household gods and household saints and household fairies. I am not sure that there have yet been any factory gods or factory saints or factory fairies. I may be wrong, as I am no commericial expert, but

There have been household gods and household saints and household fairies. I am not sure that there have yet been any factory gods or factory saints or factory fairies. I may be wrong, as I am no commericial expert, but I have not heard of them as yet.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Saint, Culture, May

The noble temptation to see too much in everything.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Temptation, Noble, Too Much

The more truly we can see life as a fairytale, the more clearly the tale resolves itself into war with the dragon who is wasting fairyland.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
War, Dragons, Fairytale

It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Catholic, Doubt, Gone

A sober man may become a drunkard through being a coward. A brave man may become a coward through being a drunkard.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Men, Brave, Coward
"Charles Dickens: A Critical Study". Book by G. K. Chesterton, 1906.

The great majority of people will go on observing forms that cannot be explained; they will keep Christmas Day with Christmas gifts and Christmas benedictions; they will continue to do it; and some day suddenly wake up and discover why.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Christmas, People, Wake Up

We can be almost certain of being wrong about the future, if we are wrong about the past.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Past, History, Certain

There is only one thing certain and that is that nothing is certain

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Certain, One Thing

[Fairy tales] make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water.

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

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

The man who lives in a small community lives in a much larger world... The reason is obvious. In a large community we can choose our companions. In a small community our companions are chosen for us.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Men, Community, World
Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.194, Simon and Schuster

Every man speaks of public opinion, and means by public opinion, public opinion minus his opinion.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Mean, Men, Public Opinion
Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.170, Simon and Schuster

The English are no nearer than they were a hundred years ago to knowing what Jefferson really meant when he said that God had created all men equal.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Equality, Men, Knowing

The whole order of things is as outrageous as any miracle which could presume to violate it.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Order, Miracle, Outrageous

When you break the big laws, you do not get liberty; you do not even get anarchy. You get the small laws.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Law, Liberty, Anarchy
Daily News (London), 29 July 1905

Man must have just enough faith in himself to have adventures, and just enough doubt of himself to enjoy them.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Adventure, Men, Doubt
Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.85, Simon and Schuster

My attitude toward progress has passed from antagonism to boredom. I have long ceased to argue with people who prefer Thursday to Wednesday because it is Thursday.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Attitude, Boredom, Long

The voice of the special rebels and prophets, recommending discontent, should, as I have said, sound now and then suddenly, like a trumpet. But the voices of the saints and sages, recommending contentment, should sound unceasingly, like the sea.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Sea, Voice, Special

The beautification of the world is not a work of nature, but a work of art, then it involves an artist.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Art, Literature, World

It is ludicrous to suppose that the more sceptical we are the more we see good in everything. It is clear that the more we are certain what good is, the more we shall see good in everything.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Certain, Skeptic, Clear
Gilbert K. Chesterton (1909). “Heretics”

But they none of them create the psychological conditions in which I first saw, or desired to see, the flower.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Flower, Saws, Firsts

People decided that it was impossible to achieve any of the good of Socialism, but they comforted themselves by achieving all the bad.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
People, Impossible, Socialism

Your next-door neighbor is not a man; he is an environment. He is the barking of a dog; he is the noise of a piano; he is a dispute about a party wall; he is drains that are worse than yours, or roses that are better than yours.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Funny, Dog, Wall

The most important fact about the subject of education is that there is no such thing. Education is not a subject and it does not deal in subjects. It is instead the transfer of a way of life.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Important, Doe, Way

The new school of art and thought does indeed wear an air of audacity, and breaks out everywhere into blasphemies, as if it required any courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that it requires real courage to say, and that is a truism.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Courage, Art, Real

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