G. K. Chesterton

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G. K. Chesterton

When some Englishmoralists writeabout the importance of hav-

ing character, they appearto mean only the importance of having

a dull character.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 14 June1936) was a British writer whose prolific and diverse out-put included works ofphilosophy,ontology,poetry, playwriting, journalism, public lecturing and debating, liter-

ary andart criticism, biography, Christian apologetics,and fiction, includingfantasyand detective fiction. Hehas been called the prince ofparadox".

See also:

Heretics(1905)

Orthodoxy(1908)

The Man Who Was Thursday

(1908)

Whats Wrong with the World

(1910)

The Ballad of the White Horse(1911)

The Everlasting Man(1925)

1 Quotes

Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference,

which is an elegant name forignorance.

The Speaker(15 December 1900)

One of the deepest and strangest ofall human moodsis the mood which will suddenly strike us perhapsin a garden atnight, or deep in sloping meadows,

thefeelingthat everyflowerand leaf has just utteredsomething stupendously direct and important, andthat we have by a prodigy of imbecility not heard orunderstood it. There is a certainpoetic value, andthat a genuine one, in this sense of having missed

the fullmeaningof things. There isbeauty, not

only inwisdom, but in this dazed and dramatic

ignorance.

Robert Browning.(1903)

Thetruthis thatTolstoy, with his immensegenius,with his colossalfaith, with his vastfearlessnessandvastknowledgeoflife, is deficient in one faculty andone faculty alone. He is not a mystic; and there-fore he has a tendency to go mad. Men talk of theextravagances and frenzies that have been producedbymysticism; they are a mere drop in the bucket. Inthe main, and from the beginning of time, mysticismhas kept men sane. The thing that has driven themmad waslogic. ...The only thing that has kept therace of men from the mad extremes of the con-

vent and the pirate-galley, the night-club and the

lethal chamber, has been mysticism the beliefthat logic is misleading, and that things are not

what they seem.

Tolstoy(1903)

Reasonis always a kind of bruteforce; those whoappeal to the head rather than the heart, howeverpallid and polite, arenecessarilymen ofviolence.We speak of 'touching' a mans heart, but we can donothing to his head but hit it.

Twelve Types(1903) Charles II

The center of every mans existence is a dream.

Death,disease,insanity, are merely material acci-dents, like a toothache or a twisted ankle. That thesebrutal forces always besiege and often capture thecitadel does not prove that they are the citadel.

Twelve Types(1903) Sir Walter Scott

The simplification of anything is always sensational.

Varied Types(1903)

He is only a very shallowcriticwho cannot see aneternalrebel in theheartof theConservative.

1
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2 1 QUOTES

There is a great man who makes everyman feelsmall. But the

real greatman is the man who makes every man feel great.

Varied Types(1903)

There is only one thing that it requires real

Impartiality is a pompousnameforindifference, which is an el-

egant name forignorance.

There is a certainpoetic value, and that a genuine one, in this

sense of having missed the fullmeaning of things. There is

beauty, not only in wisdom, but in this dazed and dramatic

ignorance.

courageto say, and that is a truism.

[http://books.google.com/books?id=

PLpLAAAAMAAJ&q=\char"0022\

relax{}There+is+only+one+thing+that+

it+requires+real+courage+to+say+and+

that+is+a+truism\char"0022\relax{}&pg=

PA17#v=onepage G.F. Watts](1904)

Bosh, he said, On what else is the whole worldrun but immediate impressions? What is more prac-tical? My friend, thephilosophyof thisworldmaybe founded on facts, but itsbusinessis run on spiri-tual impressions and atmospheres.

The Club of Queer Trades(1905) Ch. 2 The
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The center of every mans existence is adream.

The philosophyof thisworldmay be founded onfacts, but its

businessis run on spiritual impressions and atmospheres.

Briefly, you can only findtruthwithlogic if you have already

found truth without it.

Painful Fall of a Great Reputation

Truthmust ofnecessitybestrangerthanfictionfor fiction is the creation of the human mind, andtherefore is congenial to it.

Moderate strength is shown in violence, supreme strength is

shown inlevity.

The Club of Queer Trades(1905) Ch. 4 Spec-ulation of the House Agent

Men always talk about the most important things tototalstrangers. It is because in the total stranger weperceive man himself; the image ofGodis not dis-

guised by resemblances to an uncle ordoubtsof thewisdomof a moustache.

[http://books.google.com/books?id=

mjcdk4InFzoC&q=\char"0022\relax{}Men+

always+talk+about+the+most+important+

things+to+total+strangers+it+is+because+

in+the+total+stranger+we+perceive+

man+himself+the+image+of+God+is+

not+disguised+by+resemblances+to+an+

uncle+or+doubts+of+the+wisdom+of+a+

moustache\char"0022\relax{}&pg=PT93#

v=onepage The Club of Queer Trades](1905)Ch. 5 The Noticeable Conduct of ProfessorChadd

Earnest Freethinkers need not worry themselves somuch about the persecutions of the past. BeforetheLiberalidea is dead or triumphant we shall seewarsand persecutions the like of which theworldhas never seen.

Daily News(18 February 1905)

Briefly, you can only findtruthwithlogicif you

have already found truth without it.

Daily News(25 February 1905)
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4 1 QUOTES

The riddle of life is simply this. For some mad

reason in this mad world of ours, the things

which men differ about most are exactly the

things about which they must be got to agree.

Men can agree on the fact that the earth goes

round the sun. But then it does not matter a

dump whether the earth goes around the sunor the Pleiades. But men cannot agree about

morals: sex, property, individual rights, fixity

and contracts, patriotism, suicide, public habits

of health these are exactly the things that men

tend to fight about. And these are exactly the

things that must be settled somehow on strict

principles. Study each of them, and you will find

each of them works back certainly to a philoso-

phy, probably to a religion.

According to Larry Azar (Evolution and

Other Fairy Tales, AuthorHouse, 2005, p.470), Chesterton made this statement on 16March 1907

Whenpeopleimpute special vices to the ChristianChurch, they seem entirely to forget that the world(which is theonlyother thing there is)hasthesevicesmuch more. The Church has been cruel; but theworld has been much more cruel. The Church hasplotted; but the world has plotted much more. TheChurch has been superstitious; but it has never beenso superstitious as the world is when left to itself.

Illustrated London News(14 December 1907)

The riddles ofGodare more satisfying than the

solutions of man.

The Book of Job: An introduction (1907)

When learned men begin to use theirreason, then Igenerally discover that they haven't got any.

Illustrated London News(7 November 1908)

A man must be orthodox upon most things, or

he will never even have time to preach his own

heresy.

George Bernard Shaw(1909)

Wehavepassedtheageofthe demagogue, the manwho has little to say and says it loud. We havecome to the age of the mystagogue or don, the manwho has nothing to say, but says it softly and impres-

sively in an indistinct whisper.

George Bernard Shaw(1909)

Men do not differ much about what thingsthey will callevils; they

differ enormously about what evils they will call excusable.

For myfriendsaid that he opened his intellect asthesunopens the fans of a palm tree, opening foropenings sake, opening infinitely for ever. But Isaid that I opened my intellect as I opened my

mouth, in order to shut it again on something

solid. I was doing it at the moment. And as I trulypointed out, it would look uncommonly silly if I wenton opening my mouth infinitely, for ever and ever.

Tremendous Trifles(1909)

Misers get up early in the morning; and burglars, I

am informed, get up the night before. Tremendous Trifles(1909)

Fairy tales, then, arenot responsible for producing inchildrenfear, or any of the shapes of fear; fairy talesdo not give the child the idea of theevilor the ugly;that is in the child already, because it is in theworldalready. Fairy tales do not give the child his firstidea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is

his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey.Thebabyhasknown thedragon intimately ever since

he had animagination. What the fairy tale providesfor him is a St. George to kill the dragon. Exactlywhat the fairy tale does is this: it accustoms him for
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The baby has known thedragonintimately ever since he had an

imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George

to kill the dragon.

a series of clear pictures tothe idea that these lim-itless terrors had a limit, that these shapeless en-

emies have enemies in the knights ofGod, thatthere is something in theuniversemoremystical

thandarkness, and stronger than strong fear.

Tremendous Trifles(1909), XVII: The RedAngel

Paraphrased Variant: Fairy tales are morethan true not because they tell us dragonsexist, but because they tell us dragons can bebeaten.

The earliest known attribution of this wasan epigraph in Coraline (2004) byNeilGaiman; when questioned on this at hisofficial Tumblr account, Gaiman admit-ted to misquoting Chesterton: Its myfault. When I started writing Coraline, Iwrote my version of the quote inTremen-dous Trifles, meaning to go back later andfind the actual quote, as I didnt own thebook, and this was before the Internet.And then ten years went by before I fin-ished the book, and in the meantime I hadcompletely forgotten that the Chestertonquote was mine and not his.

Im perfectly happy for anyone to at-tribute it to either of us. The sentimentis his, the phrasing is mine.

Paraphrased variant:Fairytales dont tell chil-drenthat dragons exist. Children alreadyknowthat dragons exist. Fairytales tell children thatdragons can be killed.

Appeared in Criminal Minds 2007episode Seven Seconds (IMDB quoteentry)

Men do not differ much about what things they

will callevils; they differ enormously about what

evils they will call excusable.

Illustrated London News(23 October 1909)

I swear to you, then, said MacIan, after a pause.I swear to you that nothing shall come between us.I swear to you that nothing shall be in my heart orin my head till our swords clash together. I swearit by the God you have denied, by the Blessed Ladyyou have blasphemed; I swear it by the seven swordsin her heart. I swear it by the Holy Island wheremy fathers are, by the honour of my mother, by thesecret of my people, and by the chalice of the Bloodof God.The atheist drew up his head. And I, he said, givemy word.

The Ball and the Cross(1909), part II: TheReligion of the Stipendiary Magistrate, lastparagraphs

Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.
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6 1 QUOTES

It is the one great weakness of journalism as a pic-ture of our modern existence, that it must be a pic-ture made up entirely of exceptions. We announceon flaring posters that a man has fallen off a scaf-folding. We do not announce on flaring posters thata man has not fallen off a scaffolding. Yet this lat-

ter fact is fundamentally more exciting, as indicat-ing that that moving tower of terror and mystery, aman, is still abroad upon the earth. That the manhas not fallen off a scaffolding is really more sen-sational; and it is also some thousand times morecommon. But journalism cannot reasonably be ex-pected thus to insist upon the permanent miracles.Busy editors cannot be expected to put on their

posters, Mr. Wilkinson Still Safe, or Mr.

Jones, of Worthing, Not Dead Yet. They cannot

announce the happiness of mankind at all. They

cannot describe all the forks that are not stolen,

or all the marriages that are not judiciously dis-solved. Hence the complex picture they give of

life is of necessity fallacious; they can only rep-

resent what is unusual. However democratic theymay be, they are only concerned with the minority.

The Ball and the Cross, part IV: A Discussionat Dawn, 2nd paragraph

The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also tolove our enemies; probably because they are gener-ally the same people.

Illustrated London News(16 July 1910)

I think that if they gave me leave, Within the worldto stand, I would be good through all the day I spentin fairyland. They should not hear a word from me,Of selfishness or scorn, If only I could find the door,If only I were born.

By the Babe Unborn poem, Delphi Works ofG. K. Chesterton (Illustrated)[1]

Neither reason nor faith will ever die; for men

would die if deprived of either. The wildest mys-tic uses his reason at some stage; if it be only

by reasoning against reason. The most incisive

sceptic has dogmas of his own; though when he

is a very incisive sceptic, he has often forgotten

what they are. Faith and reason are in this sense

co-eternal; but as the words are popularly used,

as loose labels for particular periods, the one is

now almost as remote as the other. What was

called the Age of Reason has vanished as com-

pletely as what are called the Ages of Faith.

Anti-Religious Thought In The Eighteenth Cen-

tury; first published in An Outline of Chris-tianity : The Story of our Civilization, Vol.IV,Christianity and Modern Thought(1926)

Poets have been mysteriously silent on the sub-

ject of cheese.

Alarms and Discursions(1910), 'Cheese,' p.70

But whenever one meets modern thinkers (as oneoften does) progressing toward a madhouse, one al-ways finds, on inquiry, that they have just had asplendid escape from another madhouse. Thus, hun-dreds of people become Socialists, not because theyhave tried Socialism and found it nice, but becausethey have tried Individualism and found it particu-larly nasty.

Alarms and Discursions (1910), 'The NewHouse,' pp. 161-162

The whole difference between construction and cre-ation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can onlybe loved after it is constructed; but a thing createdis loved before it exists, as the mother can love theunborn child.

Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of

Charles DickensChapter III Pickwick Pa-pers (1911)

Either criticism is no good at all (a very defensibleposition) or else criticism means saying about an au-thor the very things that would have made him jump

out of his boots. Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of

Charles DickensChapter VI Old CuriosityShop (1911)

As for science and religion, the known and admit-ted facts are few and plain enough. All that the par-sons say is unproved. All that the doctors say is dis-proved. Thats the only difference between scienceand religion theres ever been, or will be.

Michael Moon inManalive(1912)

The academic mind reflects infinity, and is full oflight by the simple process of being shallow andstanding still.

Inglewood inManalive(1912)

Among the rich you will never find a really generousman even by accident. They may give their moneyaway, but they will never give themselves away; theyareegotistic, secretive, dryas old bones. Tobe smartenough to get all that money you must be dull enough

to want it.

A Miscellany of Men(1912)
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7

There are two ways of dealing with nonsense in this world...

The rich are the scum of the earth in every country.

The Flying Inn(1914)

I am not fighting a hopeless fight. People who havefought in real fights don't, as a rule.

Patrick Dalroy in The Flying Inn (1914), p 295

To have a right to do a thing isnot at all the same

as to be right in doing it.

A Short History of England(1917)

All government is an ugly necessity.

A Short History of England(1917)

A change of opinions is almost unknown in an el-derly military man.

A Utopia of Usurers(1917)

There is inIslama paradox which is perhaps a per-manent menace. The great creed born in the desertcreates a kind of ecstasy out of the very emptinessof its own land, and even, one may say, out of theemptiness of its own theology. [...] A void is madein the heart of Islam which has to be filled up againand again by a mere repetition of the revolution thatfounded it. There are no sacraments ; the only thingthat can happen is a sort of apocalypse, as unique asthe end of the world ; so the apocalypse can only berepeated and the world end again and again. Thereare no priests ; and yet this equality can only breed amultitude of lawless prophets almost as numerous aspriests. The very dogma that there is only one Ma-homet produces an endlessprocessionof Mahomets.

Lord Kitchener(1917), pp. 78

When a politician is in opposition he is an ex-pert on the means to some end; and when he is

in office he is an expert on the obstacles to it.

Illustrated London News(6 April 1918)

Prince, Bayard would have smashed his swordTo see the sort of knights you dub--Is that the last of them O LordWill someone take me to a pub?

A Ballade Of An Anti-puritanin The Bookof Humorous Verse (1920) edited CarolynWells, p. 338

A mystic is a man who separates heaven and

earth even if he enjoys them both.

William Blake (1920)

Christendom might quite reasonably have beenalarmed if it had not been attacked. But as a mat-

ter of history it had been attacked. The Crusaderwould have been quite justified in suspecting theMoslem even if the Moslem had merely been a newstranger; but as a matter of history he was alreadyan old enemy. The critic of the Crusade talks as ifit had sought out some inoffensive tribe or templein the interior of Thibet, which was never discov-ered until it was invaded. They seem entirely to for-get that long before the Crusaders had dreamed ofriding to Jerusalem, the Moslems had almost riddeninto Paris. They seem to forget that if the Cru-saders nearly conquered Palestine, it was but a

return upon the Moslems who had nearly con-quered Europe.

The Meaning of The Crusade.(1920)

It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians arehanged.

The Cleveland Press(1 March 1921)

There are two ways of dealing with nonsense in

this world. One way is to put nonsense in the

right place; as when people put nonsense into

nursery rhymes. The other is to put nonsense

in the wrong place; as when they put it into edu-

cational addresses, psychological criticisms, and

complaints against nursery rhymes or other nor-

mal amusements of mankind.

Child Psychology and Nonsense (15 October1921)

I do not believe in a fate that falls on men how-

ever they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls

on them unless they act.

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8 1 QUOTES

The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives

and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on mak-

ing mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the

mistakes from being corrected.

I believe what really happens in history is this:

the old man is always wrong; and the young peo-

ple are always wrong about what is wrong with

him. The practical form it takes is this: that,

while the old man may stand by some stupid cus-

tom, the young man always attacks it with some

theory that turns out to be equally stupid.

Illustrated London News(3 June 1922)

Atheismis, I suppose, the supreme example of a

simple faith. The man says there is noGod; if hereally says it in hisheart, he is a certain sort of manso designated in Scripture [i. e. a fool, Ps 53:2].But, anyhow, when he has said it, he has said it;and there seems to be no more to be said. The con-versation seems likely to languish. The truth is thatthe atmosphere of excitement, by which the athe-ist lived, was an atmosphere of thrilled and shud-deringtheism, and not of atheism at all; it was an

atmosphere of defiance and not of denial. Irrever-ence is a very servile parasite of reverence; and

has starved with its starving lord.After this firstfuss about the merely aesthetic effect ofblasphemy,the whole thing vanishes into its own void. If therewere not God, there would be no atheists.

Where All Roads Lead (1922); this is oftenmisquoted as "If there were no God, therewould be no atheists."

The whole modern world has divided itself into

Conservatives and Progressives. The business ofProgressives is to go on making mistakes. The

business of Conservatives is to prevent mistakes

from being corrected. Even when the revolution-ist might himself repent of his revolution, the tra-ditionalist is already defending it as part of his tra-dition. Thus we have two great types the ad-vanced personwho rushes us into ruin, andthe retro-spective person who admires the ruins. He admiresthem especially by moonlight, not to say moonshine.Each new blunder of theprogressive or prig becomesinstantly a legend of immemorial antiquity for thesnob. This is called the balance, or mutual check, in

our Constitution.

Illustrated London News(1924)

These are the days when the Christian is expected topraise every creed except his own.

Illustrated London News(11 August 1928)

The full potentialities of human fury cannot bereached until a friend of both parties tactfully inter-venes.

"The Skeptic as a Critic, The Forum(February 1929)
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9

Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they

become fashions.


There is something to be said for every error;

but, whatever may be said for it, the most im-portant thing to be said about it is that it is er-

roneous.

The Illustrated London News(25 April 1931)

The modern world seems to have no notion of pre-serving different things side by side, of allowing itsproper andproportionate place to each, of saving thewhole varied heritage of culture. It has no notionexcept that of simplifying something by destroyingnearly everything.

Holding on to Romanticism in The Illus-trated London News(2 May 1931)

What embitters the world is not excess of criti-

cism, but absence of self-criticism.

On Bright Old Things and Other ThingsinSidelights on New London and Newer NewYork : And Other Essays(1932)

Plato was right, but not quite right.

The Dumb Ox(1934)

The Church never said that wrongs could not orshould not be righted; or that commonwealths couldnot or should not be made happier; or that it wasnot worth while to help them in secular and ma-terial things; or that it is not a good thing if man-ners become milder, or comforts more common, orcruelties more rare. But she did say that we mustnot count on the certainty even of comforts becom-ing more common or cruelties more rare; as if thiswere an inevitable social trend towards a sinless hu-manity; instead of being as it was a mood of man,

and perhaps a better mood, possibly to be followedby a worse one. We must not hate humanity, ordespise humanity, or refuse to help humanity;

but we must not trust humanity; in the sense of

trusting a trend in human nature which cannot

turn back to bad things.

My Six Conversions, II : When the WorldTurned Back in The Wells and the Shallows(1935)

It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is that

they can't see the problem.

The Point of a Pin inThe Scandal of FatherBrown(1935)

Half the trouble about the modern man is that he iseducated to understand foreign languages and mis-understand foreigners.

The Autobiography of G.K. Chesterton(1936)

For children are innocent and love justice, whilemost of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy.

The Coloured Lands(1938)

A man must love a thing very much if he not onlypractices it without any hope of fameand money, buteven practices it without any hope of doing it well.

As quoted in Mackays The Harvest of aQuiet Eye, A Selection of Scientific Quotations

(1977), p. 34

The poor object to being governed badly, while the rich object to

being governed at all.

Never invoke the gods unless you really want

them to appear. It annoys them very much.

As quoted in The Sleep of Trees (1980) byJane Yolen, in Tales of Wonder(1983) by JaneYolen, p. 33

Without education, we are in a horrible and

deadly danger of taking educated people seri-

ously.

Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton : The Il-

lustrated London News, 1905-1907(1986), p.71

A modern man may disapprove of some of his

sweeping reforms, and approve others; but finds itdifficult not to admire even where he does not ap-prove.
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10 1 QUOTES

Said of Benito Mussoliniwhile comparinghimtoHildebrand (i. e. Pope Gregory VII), asquoted in The Pearl of Great Price byRobertRoyal, his Introduction to The Resurrectionof Rome by G. K. Chesterton in The CollectedWorks of G.K. Chesterton (1990) by Vol. XXI,

p. 274

I've searched all the parks in all the cities and

found no statues of Committees.

As quoted in Trust Or Consequences : BuildTrust Today Or Lose Your Market Tomorrow

(2004) by Al Golin, p. 206; also inStorms ofLife(2008) by Dr. Don Givens, p. 136

The poor object to being governed badly, while

the rich object to being governed at all.

As quoted in Grace at the Table : EndingHunger in Gods World(1999) by David M.Beckmann abd Arthur R. Simon, p. 156

And I will add this point of merely personal expe-rience of humanity: when men have a real expla-nation they explain it, eagerly and copiously and

in common speech,as Huxley freely gave it whenhe thought he had it. When they have no expla-nation to offer, they give short dignified replies,

disdainful of the ignorance of the multitude.

Doubts About Darwinism, inThe IllustratedLondon News(17 July 1920)

It is only great men who take up a great space by notbeing there.

Lecture at theUniversity of Notre Dame(13October 1930), as quoted in notes taken byProfessor Richard Baker, of theUniversity ofDayton, and published in The Chesterton Re-view(Winter/Spring 1977)

A stiff apology is a second insult. The Real Dr. Johnson,The Common Man

(1950)

1.1 The Defendant (1901)

A collection of essays previously published in TheSpeakerandThe Daily News.

The cause which is blockingall progresstoday

is the subtlescepticismwhich whispers in a mil-lion ears that things are not good enough to be

worth improving. If theworld is goodwe are

The person who is really in revolt is the optimist, who generally

lives and dies in a desperate and suicidal effort to persuade all the

other people how good they are. It has been proved a hundred

times over that if you really wish to enragepeople and make them

angry, even unto death, the right way to do it is to tell them thatthey are all the sons of God.

revolutionaries, if the world isevil we must be

conservatives.These essays, futile as they are con-sideredas serious literature, are yet ethically sincere,since they seek to remind men that things must belovedfirst and improved afterwards.

In Defence Of A New Edition - Preface tothe second edition (1902)

In our time the blasphemies are threadbare.Pessimism isnowpatently, as it always was es-

sentially, more commonplace thanpiety.Profan-
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pietyhttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nowhttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Blasphemieshttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Timehttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lovedhttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sincerehttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ethicallyhttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Conservativeshttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Evilhttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Revolutionarieshttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Goodhttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Worldhttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Worthhttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Scepticismhttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Progresshttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Allhttp://books.google.com/books?id=2mpaAAAAMAAJ&q=%2522A+stiff+apology+is+a+second+insult%2522&pg=PA121#v=onpagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%2520Chesterton%2520Reviewhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%2520Chesterton%2520Reviewhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University%2520of%2520Daytonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University%2520of%2520Daytonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University%2520of%2520Notre%2520Damehttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/G._K._Chestertonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert%2520Royal%2520(author)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert%2520Royal%2520(author)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope%2520Gregory%2520VIIhttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benito_Mussolini


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1.1 The Defendant(1901) 11

ity is now more than an affectation it is a con-vention. ThecurseagainstGodis Exercise I in theprimer of minor poetry.

Introduction

There runs a strange law through the length ofhuman history that men are continually tend-

ing to undervalue their environment, to under-

value their happiness, to undervalue themselves.

The great sin of mankind, the sin typified by the fallof Adam, is the tendency, not towards pride, but to-wards this weird and horrible humility.This is the great fall, the fall by which the fish for-gets the sea, the ox forgets the meadow, the clerkforgets the city, every man forgets his environmentand, in the fullest and most literal sense, forgets him-self. This is the real fall of Adam, and it is a spiritual

fall. It is a strange thing that many truly spiri-tual men, such as GeneralGordon, have actually

spent some hours in speculating upon the precise

location of the Garden of Eden. Most probably

we are in Eden still. It is only our eyes that have

changed.

Introduction

The pessimist is commonly spoken of as the man inrevolt. He is not. Firstly, because it requires somecheerfulness to continue in revolt, and secondly, be-

cause pessimism appeals to the weaker side of ev-erybody, and the pessimist, therefore, drives as roar-ing a trade as the publican. The person who is re-ally in revolt is the optimist, who generally lives

and dies in a desperate and suicidal effort to per-

suade all the other people how good they are. Ithas been proved a hundred times over that if youreally wish to enrage people and make them angry,even unto death, the right way to do it is to tell themthat they are all the sons of God.

Introduction

Every one of the great revolutionists, fromIsaiah to Shelley, have been optimists. They have

been indignant, not about the badness of exis-

tence, but about the slowness of men in realizing

its goodness.

Introduction

Let me explain a little: Certain things are bad so faras they go, such as pain, and no one, not even a lu-natic, calls a tooth-ache good in itself; but a knifewhich cuts clumsily and with difficulty is called a

bad knife, which it certainly is not. It is only notso good as other knives to which men have grownaccustomed. A knife is never bad except on such

rare occasions as that in which it is neatly and sci-entifically planted in the middle of ones back. Thecoarsest and bluntest knife which ever brokea pencilinto pieces instead of sharpening it is a good thing inso far as it is a knife. It would have appeared a mir-acle in the Stone Age. What we call a bad knife is

a good knife not good enough for us; what we call abad hat is a good hat not good enough for us; what wecall bad cookery is good cookery not good enoughfor us; what we call a bad civilization is a good civ-ilization not good enough for us. We choose to callthe great mass of the history of mankind bad, notbecause it is bad, but because we are better. Thisis palpably an unfair principle. Ivory may not beso white as snow, but the whole Arctic continent

does not make ivory black.

Introduction

Now it has appeared to me unfair that humanityshould be engaged perpetually in calling all thosethings bad which have been good enough to makeother things better, in everlastingly kicking down theladder by which it has climbed. It has appeared tome that progress should be something else besidesa continual parricide; therefore I have investigatedthe dust-heaps of humanity, and found a trea-

sure in all of them. I have found that human-

ity is not incidentally engaged, but eternally and

systematically engaged, in throwing gold into the

gutter and diamonds into the sea.

Introduction

Humility is the luxurious art of reducing ourselves to a point, not

to a small thing or a large one, but to a thing with no size at all,

so that to it all the cosmic things are what they really are of

immeasurable stature.

The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has

today all the exhilaration of a vice. Moral truismshave been so much disputed that they have begun tosparkle like so many brilliant paradoxes.
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12 1 QUOTES

A Defence of Humilities

We all know that the 'divine glory of the ego' issocially a great nuisance; we all do actually valueour friends for modesty, freshness, and simplicityof heart. Whatever may be the reason, we all dowarmly respect humility in other people.


There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through

the intellect.

It is always the secure who are humble.


A beetle may or may not be inferior to a man thematter awaits demonstration; but if he were inferiorby ten thousand fathoms, the fact remains that thereis probably a beetle view of things of which a manis entirely ignorant. If he wishes to conceive thatpoint of view, he will scarcely reach it bypersistentlyrevelling in the fact that he is not a beetle.


Humility is the luxurious art of reducing our-

selves to a point, not to a small thing or a largeone, but to a thing with no size at all, so that to

it all the cosmic things are what they really are

of immeasurable stature. That the trees arehigh and the grasses short is a mere accident of ourown foot-rules and our own stature. But to the spiritwhich has stripped off for a moment its own idletemporal standards the grass is an everlasting forest,with dragons for denizens; the stones of the road areas incredible mountains piled one upon the other;the dandelions are like gigantic bonfires illuminatingthe lands around; and the heath-bells on their stalksare like planets hung in heaven each higher than the

other.


There is a road from the eye to the heart that

does not go through the intellect. Men do notquarrel about the meaning of sunsets; they neverdispute that the hawthorn says the best and wittiestthing about the spring.

A Defence of Heraldry

The one stream of poetry which is continually flow-ing is slang.

A Defence of Slang

All slang is metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry.

"[http://books.google.com/books?id=8WpaAAAAMAAJ&q=\char"0022\relax{}all+slang+is+metaphor+and+all+metaphor+is+poetry\char"0022\relax{}&pg=PA110#v=onepage A Defense of Slang]"

If we could destroycustomat a blow and see thestarsas a child

sees them, we should need no otherapocalypse.

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 as-

tonishment at the universe is not mysticism, buta transcendent common-sense. The fascinationof children lies in this: that with each of them allthings are remade, andthe universe is put again uponits trial. As we walk the streets and see below usthose delightful bulbous heads, three times too bigfor the body, which mark these human mushrooms,we ought always primarily to remember that withinevery one of these heads there is a new universe,as new as it was on the seventh day of creation. Ineach of those orbs there is a new system of stars,new grass, new cities, a new sea.

A Defence of Baby-Worship
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1.2 The Napoleon of Notting Hill(1904) 13

Thetruthis that it is ourattitude towardschildrenthat is right,

and our attitude towards grown-up people that iswrong.

There is always in the healthy mind an obscureprompting that religion teaches us rather to dig thanto climb; that if we could once understand the com-mon clay of earth we should understand everything.Similarly, we have the sentiment that if we coulddestroy custom at a blow and see the stars as a

child sees them, we should need no other apoca-

lypse. This is the great truth which has always lainat the back of baby-worship, and which will supportit to the end


The truth is that it is our attitude towards chil-dren that is right, and our attitude towards

grown-up people that is wrong. Our attitude to-wards our equals in age consists in a servile solem-nity, overlying a considerable degree of indifferenceor disdain. Our attitude towards children consistsin a condescending indulgence, overlying an unfath-omable respect.


When we reverence anything in themature, it is theirvirtues or their wisdom, and this is an easy matter.But we reverence the faults and follies of children.We should probably come considerably nearer to

the true conception of things if we treated all

grown-up persons, of all titles and types, with

precisely that dark affection and dazed respect

with which we treat the infantile limitations.


Theessential rectitude of our view of children lies inthe fact that we feel them and their ways to be super-

natural while, for some mysterious reason, we do notfeel ourselves or our own ways to be supernatural.The very smallness of children makes it possible to

The humorous look of children is perhaps the most endearing of

all the bonds that hold the Cosmos together.

regard them as marvels; we seem to be dealing witha new race, only to be seen through a microscope.I doubt if anyone of any tenderness or imaginationcan see the hand of a child and not be a little fright-ened of it. It is awful to think of the essential humanenergy moving so tiny a thing; it is like imaginingthat human nature could live in the wing of a butter-fly or the leaf of a tree. When we look upon livesso human and yet so small, we feel as if we our-

selves were enlarged to an embarrassing bigness

of stature. We feel the same kind of obligation to

these creatures that a deity might feel if he hadcreated something that he could not understand.


The humorous look of children is perhaps the

most endearing of all the bonds that hold the

Cosmos together.Their top-heavy dignity is moretouching than any humility; their solemnity gives usmore hope for all things than a thousand carnivals ofoptimism; their large and lustrous eyes seem to holdall the stars in their astonishment; their fascinatingabsence of nose seems to give to us the most perfect

hint of the humour that awaits us in the kingdom ofheaven.


'My country, right or wrong' is a thing that no patriotwould think of saying, except in a desperate case. Itis like saying, 'My mother, drunk or sober'.

A Defence of Patriotism

1.2 The Napoleon of Notting Hill(1904)

Thehumanrace, to which so many of my read-

ers belong, has been playing at childrens games
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14 1 QUOTES

Human beings, being children, have the childish wilfulness and

the childish secrecy. And they never have from the beginning of

the world done what the wise men have seen to be inevitable.

from the beginning, and will probably do it till

the end, which is a nuisance for the few people

who grow up. And one of the games to which it ismost attached is called Keep to-morrow dark, andwhich is also named (by the rustics in Shropshire,I have no doubt) Cheat the Prophet. The playerslisten very carefully and respectfully to all that theclever men have to say about what is to happen inthe next generation. The players then wait until alltheclever men aredead, andbury them nicely. Theythen go and do something else.That isall. For arace of simple tastes, however, it is greatfun.For human beings, being children, have the

childish wilfulness and the childish secrecy. And

they never have from the beginning of the world

done what the wise men have seen to be in-evitable.

Opening lines

Many clever men like you have trusted tocivilization. Many clever Babylonians, manyclever Egyptians, many clever men at the endof Rome. Can you tell me, in a world that isflagrant with the failures of civilisation, what

there is particularly immortal about yours?

The Napoleon of Notting Hill(1904)

Lord! what astrange worldin which a man cannotremain unique even by taking the trouble to go mad!


Allrevolutionsaredoctrinal such as the Frenchone, or the one that introducedChristianity.


1.3 Heretics(1905)

There is no such thing on earth as an uninterestingsubject; the only thing that can exist is an uninter-ested person.

1.4 Charles Dickens(1906)

The thing that cannot be defined is the first thing; the primary

fact.

Much of our modern difficulty, in religion and

other things, arises merely from this: that we

confuse the word indefinable with the word

vague. If some one speaks of a spiritual fact as

indefinable we promptly picture something misty,a cloudwith indeterminate edges. But this is an erroreven in commonplace logic. The thing that can-not be defined is the first thing; the primary fact.

It is our arms and legs, our pots and pans, that areindefinable. The indefinable is the indisputable.The man next door is indefinable, because he is

too actual to be defined. And there are some to

whom spiritual things have the same fierce and

practical proximity; some to whom God is too

actual to be defined.

Ch 1 : The Dickens Period

Whatever the word great means, Dickens was whatit means.
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1.5 All Things Considered(1908) 15


There is a great man who makes every man feel

small. But the real great man is the man who

makes every man feel great.


America has a new delicacy, a coarse, rank refine-ment.

Ch. 6 Dickens and America

A sober man may become a drunkard through

being a coward. A brave man may become a cow-

ard through being a drunkard.

Ch. 8 The Time of Transition

When some English moralists write about theimportance of having character, they appear to

mean only the importance of having a dull char-

acter.

Ch. 10 The Great Dickens Characters

A man looking at a hippopotamus may sometimesbe tempted to regard a hippopotamus as an enor-mous mistake; but he is also bound to confess thata fortunate inferiority prevents him personally frommaking such mistakes.

Ch. 10 The Great Dickens Characters

1.5 All Things Considered (1908)

Full text online at Wikisource

I cannot understand the people who take liter-

ature seriously; but I can love them, and I do.

Out of my love I warn them to keep clear of this

book. It is a collection of crude and shapeless pa-pers upon current or rather flying subjects; and they

must be published pretty much as they stand. Theywere written, as a rule, at the last moment; they werehanded in the moment before it was too late, and I donot think that our commonwealth would have beenshaken to its foundations if they had been handed inthe moment after. They must go out now, with alltheir imperfections on their head, or rather on mine;for their vices are too vital to be improved with ablue pencil, or with anything I can think of, exceptdynamite.Their chief vice is that so many of them are veryserious; because I had no time to make them flip-pant. It is so easy to be solemn; it is so hard tobe frivolous.

"The Case for the Ephemeral"

To be at last in such secure innocence that one can juggle with the

universe and the stars, to be so good that one can treat everything

as a joke that may be, perhaps, the real end and final holiday

of human souls.

It is incomprehensibleto me that any thinker can

calmly call himself a modernist; he might as wellcall himself a Thursdayite. The real objectionto modernism is simply that it is a form of snobbish-ness. It is an attempt to crush a rational opponentnot by reason, but by some mystery of superiority,by hinting that one is specially up to date or par-ticularly in the know. To flaunt the fact that wehave had all the last books from Germany is simplyvulgar; like flaunting the fact that we have had allthe last bonnets from Paris. To introduce into philo-sophical discussions a sneer at a creeds antiquity islike introducing a sneer at a ladys age. It is cad-dish because it is irrelevant. The pure modernistis merely a snob; he cannot bear to be a month

behind the fashion.

The Case for the Ephemeral

An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly

considered; an adventure is an inconvenience

rightly considered.

"On Running After Ones Hat"

For my part, I should be inclined to suggest that thechief object of education should be to restore sim-

plicity. If you like to put it so, the chief object ofeducation is not to learn things; nay, the chief

object of education is to unlearn things.
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16 1 QUOTES

An Essay on Two Cities

It is not only possible to say a great deal in praise

of play; it is really possible to say the highest

things in praise of it. It might reasonably be

maintained that the true object of all human life

is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a play-

ground. To be at last in such secure innocence thatone can juggle with the universe and the stars, to beso good that one can treat everything as a joke that may be, perhaps, the real end and final holidayof human souls.

"Oxford from Without"

For fear of the newspapers politicians are dull,

and at last they are too dull even for the news-

papers.The speeches in our time are more careful

and elaborate, because they are meant to be read,and not to be heard. And exactly because they aremore careful and elaborate, they are not so likely tobe worthy of a careful andelaborate report. Theyarenot interesting enough. So the moral cowardice ofmodern politicians has, after all, some punishmentattached to it by the silent anger of heaven. Pre-cisely because our political speeches are meant to

be reported, they are not worth reporting. Pre-

cisely because they are carefully designed to be

read, nobody reads them.

On the Cryptic and the Elliptic

It is notfunnythat anything else should fall down;only that amanshould fall down. No one sees any-thing funny in atreefalling down. No one sees adelicateabsurdityin astonefalling down. No manstops in the road and roars withlaughterat the sightof thesnowcoming down. The fall ofthunderboltsis treated with some gravity. The fall of roofs andhigh buildings is taken seriously. It is only when aman tumbles down that we laugh. Why do we laugh?Because it is a gravereligiousmatter: it is theFallof Man. Only man can be absurd: for only man

can bedignified.

Spiritualism

It is the test of a good religion whether you can jokeabout it.

Spiritualism

1.6 A Song of Defeat (1910)

Fully published in Poems(1917), but appearing in

part in Sketches and Snapshots (1910) byGeorgeWilliam Russell

Our chiefs said 'Done,' and I did not deem it;

Our seers said 'Peace,' and it was not peace;

Earth will grow worse till men redeem it,

And wars more evil, ere all wars cease.

Our chiefs said 'Done,' and I did not deem it;

Our seers said 'Peace,' and it was not peace;

Earth will grow worse till men redeem it,

And wars more evil, ere all wars cease.

For we that fight till the world is free,We are not easy in victory:We have known each other too long, my brother,And fought each other, the world and we.

It is all as of old, the empty clangour,The NOTHING scrawled on a five-foot page,

The huckster who, mocking holy anger,

Painfully paints his face with rage.

We that fight till the world is free,We have no comfort in victory;We have read each other as Cain his brother,We know each other, these slaves and we.

1.7 TheFather BrownMystery Series(1910

- 1927)

The Complete Father Brown Seriesonline

The most incredible thing about miracles is that

they happen.

The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) TheBlue Cross

If you know what a mans doing, get in front of him;but if you want to guess what hes doing keep behindhim.

The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) TheBlue Cross
http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/c/c52fbhttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Father_Brownhttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_William_Russellhttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_William_Russellhttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dignifiedhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall%2520of%2520Manhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall%2520of%2520Manhttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Religioushttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thunderboltshttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Snowhttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Laughterhttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stonehttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Absurdityhttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Treehttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Manhttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Funnyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All%2520Things%2520Considered/Oxford%2520from%2520Without


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1.8 Magic: A Fantastic Comedy(1913) 17

If you convey to a woman that something ought to be done, there

is always a dreadful danger that she will suddenly do it.

One of his hobbies was to wait for the Ameri-

can Shakespeare a hobby more patient than

angling.

''The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) TheSecret Garden

His head was always most valuable when he had

lost it. In such moments he put two and two to-

gether and made four million.

The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) The

Queer Feet

Silver is sometimes more valuable than gold, that

is, in large quantities.

The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) TheQueer Feet

Odd, isn't it, that a thief and a vagabond should re-pent, when so many who are rich and secure re-main hard and frivolous, and without fruit for Godor man?

The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) TheQueer Feet

Men may keep a sort of level of good, but no manhas ever been able to keep on one level of evil.

The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) TheFlying Stars

One can sometimes do good by being the rightperson in the wrong place.

The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) TheSins of Prince Saradine

Very few reputations are gained by unsullied virtue.


The things that happen here do not seem to meananything; they mean something somewhere else.

Somewhere else retribution will come on the realoffender. Here it often seems to fall on the wrongperson.


To be clever enough to get all that money, one mustbe stupid enough to want it.

The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) TheParadise of Thieves

Journalism largely consists in saying 'LordJones Dead' to people who never knew Lord

Jones was alive.

The Wisdom of Father Brown (1914) The Pur-ple Wig

If you convey to a woman that something ought

to be done, there is always a dreadful danger that

she will suddenly do it.

The Secret of Father Brown(1927) The Songof the Flying Fish

1.8 Magic: A Fantastic Comedy(1913)

I object to a quarrel because it always interrupts

an argument.

1.9 The Victorian Age in Literature(1913)

University of Notre Dame Press, 1963

It is a quaint comment on the notion that the Englishare practical and the French merely visionary, thatwe were rebels in arts while they were rebels in arms.


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18 1 QUOTES

The mind moves by instincts, associations and premonitions and

not by fixed dates or completed processes.

Ch I: The Victorian Compromise and Its Ene-mies (p. 8)

The mind moves by instincts, associations and

premonitions and not by fixed dates or com-

pleted processes. Action and reaction will occur

simultaneously: or the cause actually be found

after the effect.Errors will be resisted before theyhave been properly promulgated: notions will befirst defined long after they are dead.

Ch I: The Victorian Compromise and Its Ene-

mies (p. 17)

A man making the confession of any creedworth tenminutes intelligent talk, is always a man who gainssomething and gives up something. So long as hedoes both he can create: for he is making an out-

line and a shape.


The central idea of poetry is the idea of guessing

right, like a child.


Dogma does not mean the absence of thought, butthe end of thought.


He did not know the way things were going: he was

too Victorian to understand the Victorian epoch. Hedid not know enough ignorant people to have heardthe news.

On William Makepeace Thackeray Ch. II:The Great Victorian Novelists (p. 65)

It is largely because the free-thinkers, as a school,have hardly made up their minds whether they wantto be more optimist or more pessimist than Chris-tianity that their small but sincere movement hasfailed.

Ch. II: The Great Victorian Novelists (p. 73)

He was, if ever there was one, an inspired poet. I donot think it the highest sort of poet. And you neverdiscover who is an inspired poet until the inspirationgoes.

OnAlgernon Charles SwinburneCh. III: TheGreat Victorian Poets (p. 95)

1.10 Who Goes Home? (1914)

Who is for victory?

Who is for liberty?

Who goes home?

This first appeared in The Flying Inn (1914), Ch.XXI : The Road to Roundabout, p. 275

In the city set upon slime and loam,They cry in their Parliament, Who goes home?"And there comes no answer in arch or dome,For none in the city of graves goes home.Yet these shall perish and understand,

For God has pity on this great land.

Men that are men again: Who goes home?Tocsin and trumpeter! Who goes home?For theres bloodon the grass and blood on the foam,
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Algernon_Charles_Swinburnehttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Makepeace_Thackerayhttp://books.google.com/books?id=mKs-AAAAYAAJ&q=%2522Dogma+does+not+mean+the+absence+of+thought+but+the+end+of+thought%2522&pg=PA43#v=onepage


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1.12 Utopia of Usurers (1917) 19

And blood on the body, when Man comes home.And a voice valedictory: Who is for victory?

Who is for liberty?

Who goes home?

1.11 Poems(1917)

It is something to be wiser than the world,

It is something to be older than the sky.

1.11.1 The Great Minimum

Let the thunder break on man and beast and bird

And the lightning. It is something to have been.

It is something to have wept as we have wept,

It is something to have done as we have done,

It is something to have watched when all men

slept,

And seen the stars which never see the sun.It is something to have smelt the mystic rose,Although it break and leave the thorny rods,

It is something to have hungered once as thoseMust hunger who have ate the bread of gods.

To have seen you and your unforgotten face,Brave as a blast of trumpets for the fray,Pure as white lilies in a watery space,It were something, though you went from me today.To have known the things that from the weak are

furled,

Perilous ancient passions, strange and high;

It is something to be wiser than the world,

It is something to be older than the sky.

In a time of sceptic moths and cynic rusts,

And fattened lives that of their sweetness tire

In a world of flying loves and fading lusts,

It is something to be sure of a desire.

Lo, blessed are our ears for they have heard;Yea, blessed are our eyes for they have seen:Let the thunder break on man and beast and

bird

And the lightning. It is something to have been.

1.12 Utopia of Usurers(1917)

Full text online

A fairly clear line separated advertisement from art. The first

effect of the triumph of the capitalist (if we allow him to tri-

umph) will be that that line of demarcation will entirely disap-

pear. There will be no art that might not just as well be adver-

tisement.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2134/2134-h/2134-h.htm


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20 1 QUOTES

The big commercial concerns of to-day are quite exceptionally

incompetent. They will be even more incompetent when they are

omnipotent.

The new community which the capitalists are now constructing

will be a very complete and absolute community; and one which

will tolerate nothing really independent of itself.

A fairly clear line separated advertisement from art. The first effect of the triumph of the capitalist (if

we allow him to triumph) will be that that line ofdemarcation will entirely disappear. There will beno art that might not just as well be advertisement.

p. 6

Literary men are being employed to praise a bigbusiness man personally, as men used to praise aking. They not only find political reasons for thecommercial schemesthat they have done for sometime pastthey also find moral defences for thecommercial schemers. I do resent the whole ageof patronage being revived under such absurd pa-trons; and all poets becoming court poets, underkings that have taken no oath.

pp. 15-17

Even the tyrant never rules by force alone; butmostly by fairy tales. And so it is with the moderntyrant, the great employer. The sight of a million-aire is seldom, in the ordinary sense, an enchantingsight: nevertheless, he is in his way an enchanter.As they say in the gushing articles about him in themagazines, he is a fascinating personality. So is asnake. At least he is fascinating to rabbits; and sois the millionaire to the rabbit-witted sort of peoplethat ladies and gentlemen have allowed themselvesto become.

p. 19

The big commercial concerns of to-day are quite ex-ceptionally incompetent. They will be even moreincompetent when they are omnipotent.

p. 23

Employers will give time to eat, time to sleep; theyare in terror of a time to think.

p. 31

The new community which the capitalists are nowconstructing will be a very complete and absolutecommunity; and one which will tolerate nothing re-ally independent of itself.

pp. 33-34

In every serious doctrine of thedestiny of men, thereis some trace of the doctrine of the equality of men.But the capitalist really depends on some religionof inequality. The capitalist must somehow distin-guish himself from human kind; he must be obvi-

ously above itor he would be obviously below it.

p. 34


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1.14 What I Saw in America(1922) 21

Wait and see whether the religion of the ServileState is not in every case what I say: the encour-agement of small virtues supporting capitalism, thediscouragement of the huge virtues that defy it.

p. 37

1.13 The Superstition of Divorce(1920)

I do not ask them to assume the worth of my

creed or any creed; and I could wish they did

not so often ask me to assume the worth of their

worthless, poisonous plutocratic modern soci-

ety. But if it could be shown, as I think it can, thata long historical view and a patient political experi-ence can at last accumulate solid scientific evidenceof the vital need of such a vow, thenI can conceiveno more tremendous tribute than this, to any

faith, which made a flaming affirmation fromthe darkest beginnings, of what the latest en-

lightenment can only slowly discover in the end.

Say that a thing is so, according to the Pope or theBible, and it will be dismissed as a superstition with-out examination. But preface your remark merelywith they say or don't you know that?" or try (andfail) to remember the name of some professor men-tioned in some newspaper; and the keen rationalismof the modern mind will accept every word you say.

1.14 What I Saw in America(1922)

There is truth in every ancient fable, and there is here even some-

thing of it in the fancy that finds the symbol of the Republic in

the bird that bore the bolts of Jove.

Full text online

A foreigner is a man who laughs at everything

except jokes. He is perfectly entitled to laugh atanything, so long as he realises, in a reverent and

religious spirit, that he himself is laughable. I

was a foreigner in America; and I can truly claimthat the sense of my own laughable position neverleft me. But when the native and the foreigner havefinished with seeing the fun of each other in thingsthat are meant to be serious, they both approach thefar more delicate and dangerous ground of things

that are meant to be funny. The sense of humouris generally very national; perhaps that is why theinternationalists are so careful to purge themselvesof it. I had occasion during the war to consider therights and wrongs of certain differences alleged tohave arisen between the English and American sol-diers at the front. And, rightly or wrongly, I cameto the conclusion that they arose from the failure tounderstand when a foreigner is serious and when heis humorous. Andit is in the very nature of thebest sort of joke to be the worst sort of insult if

it is not taken as a joke.

Fads and Public Opinion

Now there is any amount of this nonsense crop-ping up among American cranks. Anybody maypropose to establish coercive Eugenics; or en-

force psychoanalysis that is, enforce confes-

sion without absolution.


The truth is that prohibitions might have done farless harm as prohibitions, if a vague association had

not arisen, on some dark day of human unreason,between prohibition and progress. And it was theprogress that did theharm, not the prohibition.Mencan enjoy life under considerable limitations, if

they can be sure of their limited enjoyments; but

under Progressive Puritanism we can never be

sure of anything. The curse of it is not limita-

tion; it is unlimited limitation. The evil is not in

the restriction; but in the fact that nothing can

ever restrict the restriction.The prohibitions arebound to progress point by point; more andmore hu-man rights and pleasures must of necessity be takenaway; for it is of the nature of this futurism that thelatest fad is the faith of the future, and the most fan-tastic fad inevitably makes the pace. Thus the worstthing in the seventeenth-century aberration was notso much Puritanism as sectarianism. It searchedfor truth not by synthesis but by subdivision. It

not only broke religion into small pieces, but it

was bound to choose the smallest piece.


The last hundred years has seen a general de-

cline in the democratic idea. If there be any-

body left to whom this historical truth appearsa paradox, it is only because during that period

nobody has been taught history, least of all the
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22 1 QUOTES

history of ideas. If a sort of intellectual inquisi-tion had been established, for the definition and dif-ferentiation of heresies, it would have been foundthat the original republican orthodoxy had sufferedmore and more from secessions, schisms, and back-slidings. The highest point of democratic ideal-

ism and conviction was towards the end of theeighteenth century, when the American Repub-

lic was 'dedicated to the proposition that all men

are equal.' It was then that the largest number

of men had the most serious sort of conviction

that the political problem could be solved by the

vote of peoples instead of the arbitrary power of

princes and privileged orders.

The Future of Democracy

There is truth in every ancient fable, and there is

here even something of it in the fancy that findsthe symbol of the Republic in the bird that bore

the bolts of Jove.Owls and bats may wander wherethey will in darkness, and for them as for thescepticsthe universe may have no centre; kites and vulturesmay linger as they like over carrion, and for them asfor the plutocrats existence may have no origin andno end; but it was far back in the land of legends,where instincts find their true images, that the crywent forth that freedom is an eagle, whose glory

is gazing at the sun.

The Future of Democracy

1.15 The Everlasting Man(1925)

About sex especially men are born unbalanced; wemight almost say men are born mad. They scarcelyreach sanity till they reach sanctity.

1.16 The Dagger with Wings(1926)

We are talking about an artist; and for the en-

joyment of the artist the mask must be to some

extent moulded on the face. What he makes out-side him must correspond to something inside

him; he can only make his effects out of some of

the materials of his soul.

An artist will betray himself by some sort of sin-

cerity.

You have no business to be an unbeliever. You oughtto stand for all the things these stupid people callsuperstitions. Come now, don't you think theres a

lot in those old wives tales about luck and charmsand so on, silver bullets included? What do you sayabout them as a Catholic?'

'I say I'm an agnostic,' replied Father Brown, smil-ing.'Nonsense,' said Aylmer impatiently. 'Its your busi-ness to believe things.''Well, I do believe some things, of course,' con-

ceded Father Brown; 'and therefore, of course, I

don't believe other things.'.

'You do believe it,' he said. 'You do believe every-thing. We all believe everything, even when we denyeverything. The denyers believe. The unbelieversbelieve. Don't you feel in your heart that these con-tradictions do not really contradict: that there is acosmos that contains them all? The soul goes roundupon a wheel of stars and all things return; per-haps Strake and I have striven in many shapes, beastagainst beast and bird against bird, and perhaps weshall strive for ever. But since we seek and need

each other, even that eternal hatred is an eternal love.Good and evil go round in a wheel that is one thingand not many. Do you not realize in your heart, doyou not believe behind all your beliefs, that there isbut one reality and we are its shadows; and that allthings are but aspects of one thing: a centre wheremen melt into Man and Man into God?''No,' said Father Brown.

He had the notion that because I am a clergymanI should believe anything. Many people have littlenotions of that kind.

All things are from God; and above all, reason

and imagination and the great gifts of the mind.

They are good in themselves; and we must not

altogether forget their origin even in their per-

version.

'I'm afraid I'm a practical man,' said the doctor withgruff humour, 'and I don't bother much about reli-gion and philosophy.''You'll never be a practical man till you do,' said Fa-ther Brown. 'Look here, doctor; you know me

pretty well; I think you know I'm not a bigot.You know I know there are all sorts in all re-

ligions; good men in bad ones and bad men in

good ones.

Yet he is right enough about there being a white

magic, if he only knows where to look for it.

1.17 The Thing(1929)

The Thing : Why I Am A Catholic(1929)

In the matter of reforming things, as distinct

from deforming them, there is one plain and
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23

simple principle; a principle which will proba-

bly be called a paradox. There exists in such acase a certain institution or law; let us say, for thesake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across aroad. The more modern type of reformer goes gailyup to it and says, "I don't see the use of this; let us

clear it away." To which the more intelligent typeof reformer will do well to answer: "If you don'tsee the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it

away. Go away and think. Then, when you can

come back and tell me that you do see the use of

it, I may allow you to destroy it."This paradox rests on the most elementary commonsense. The gate or fence did not grow there. It wasnot set up by somnambulists who built it in theirsleep. It is highly improbable that it was put thereby escaped lunatics who were for some reason loosein the street. Some person had some reason for

thinking it would be a good thing for somebody.And until we know what the reason was, we re-

ally cannot judge whether the reason was rea-

sonable. It is extremely probable that we have

overlooked some whole aspect of the question, if

something set up by human beings like ourselves

seems to be entirely meaningless and mysteri-

ous.There are reformers who get over this difficultyby assuming that all their fathers were fools; but ifthat be so, we can only say that folly appears to bea hereditary disease. But the truth is thatnobodyhas any business to destroy a social institution

until he has really seen it as an historical insti-

tution. If he knows how it arose, and what pur-poses it was supposed to serve, he may really be

able to say that they were bad purposes, or that

they have since become bad purposes, or that

they are purposes which are no longer served.

But if he simply stares at the thing as a sense-

less monstrosity that has somehow sprung up in

his path, it is he and not the traditionalist who is

suffering from an illusion.

Ch. IV : The Drift From Domesticity

2 Misattributed

An open mind is really a mark of foolishness, like anopen mouth. Mouths and minds were made to shut;they were made to open only in order to shut.

Original quote:

For my friend said that he opened his in-tellect as the sun opens the fans of a palmtree, opening for openings sake, open-ing infinitely for ever. But I said that

I opened my intellect as I opened mymouth, in order to shut it again on

something solid. I was doing it at the

moment. And as I truly pointed out, itwould look uncommonly silly if I went onopening my mouth infinitely, for ever andever.

The Extraordinary Cabman, one of manyessays collected in Tremendous Trifles

(1909)

When people stop believing in God, they dont be-lieve in nothing they believe in anything.

This quotation actually comes from page 211of mile Cammaerts' book The LaughingProphet : The Seven Virtues and G. K. Chester-

ton(1937) in which he quotes Chesterton ashaving Father Brown say, in The Oracle ofthe Dog (1923): "Its the first effect of notbelieving in God that you lose your com-

mon sense." Cammaerts then interposes hisown analysis between further quotes from Fa-ther Brown: "'Its drowning all your old ratio-nalism andscepticism, its coming in like a sea;and the name of it is superstition.' The first ef-fect of not believing in God is to believe in any-thing: 'And a dog isan omenanda cat isa mys-tery.'" Note that the remark about believing inanything is outside the quotation marks it isCammaerts.Nigel Rees is credited with iden-tifying this as the source of the misattribution,in a 1997 issue ofFirst Things

A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifiestrifling things but cannot receive great ones.

Though sometimes misattributed to Chester-ton, this is generally attributed toPhilip Stan-hope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, with the firstpublication of this yet located is in a sectionof proverbs called Diamond Dust in ElizaCook's Journal, No. 98 (15 March 1851),with the first attribution to Chesterfield as yetlocated in: Many Thoughts of Many Minds(1862) edited by Henry Southgate.

Don't ever take a fence down until you know the rea-son why it was put up.

According toThe American Chesterton Soci-ety, this quotation is actually a paraphrase byJohn F. Kennedyof a passage fromThe Thing(1929) in which Chesterton made reference toa fence or gate erected across a road: Themore modern type of reformer goes gaily upto it and says, "I don't see the use of this; letus clear it away." To which the more intelli-gent type of reformer will do well to answer:

"If you don't see the use of it, I certainlywon't let you clear it away. Go away and

think. Then, when you can come back and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedyhttp://www.chesterton.org/qmeister2/19.htmhttp://www.chesterton.org/qmeister2/19.htmhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliza%2520Cookhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliza%2520Cookhttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Stanhope,_4th_Earl_of_Chesterfieldhttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Stanhope,_4th_Earl_of_Chesterfieldhttp://books.google.com/books?id=NuQnAAAAYAAJ&q=%2522The+first+effect+of+not+believing+in+God+is+to+believe+in+anything%2522&dq=%2522The+first+effect+of+not+believing+in+God+is+to+believe+in+anything%2522&hl=en&ei=PSzcTvewIefx0gHqmrj0DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAQhttp://books.google.com/books?id=NuQnAAAAYAAJ&q=%2522The+first+effect+of+not+believing+in+God+is+to+believe+in+anything%2522&dq=%2522The+first+effect+of+not+believing+in+God+is+to+believe+in+anything%2522&hl=en&ei=PSzcTvewIefx0gHqmrj0DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAQhttp://books.google.com/books?id=NuQnAAAAYAAJ&q=%2522The+first+effect+of+not+believing+in+God+is+to+believe+in+anything%2522&dq=%2522The+first+effect+of+not+believing+in+God+is+to+believe+in+anything%2522&hl=en&ei=PSzcTvewIefx0gHqmrj0DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAQhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emile%2520Cammaerts


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24 3 QUOTES ABOUT CHESTERTON

tell me that you do see the use of it, I may

allow you to destroy it."

Q: Whats wrong with the world? A: I am.

Purportedly a response by Chesterton to the

question posed around 1910 by theThe Timesof London (along with other luminaries),but biographer Kevin Belmonte, in 'DefiantJoy: the Remarkable Life & Impact of G.K.Chesterton', was unable to verify. Belmontesurmises its origin in an anecdote that whilewritingWhats Wrong with the World(told inthe books preface), he would delight in tellingsociety ladies that I have been doing 'What isWrong' all this morning.

And when it rains on your parade, look up rather

than down. Without therain, there would be no rain-bow.

A popular internet misattribution.[citation needed]

A number of variants of the rain on your pa-rade theme appear, with different sources

A man knocking on the door of a brothel is lookingfor God.

The source is actually a 1945 book by BruceMarshall, The World, The Flesh, and FatherSmith, in which he says, "...the young man

who rings the bell at the brothel is uncon-sciously looking for God."

3 Quotes about Chesterton

The insistence of the Christian doctrine on manslimited condition was somehow enough of a phi-losophy to allow its adherents a very deep insightinto the essential inhumanity of all those modernattempts psychological, technical, biological tochange man into the monster of superman. They

realized that a pursuit ofhappinesswhich actuallymeans to wipe away all tears will pretty quickly endby wiping out alllaughter. It was again Christianitywhich taught them that nothinghumancan existbeyond tears and laughter, except thesilenceof

despair.

Hannah Arendt, commenting on ChestertonandCharles Pguyin Christianity and Rev-olution, inHannah Arendt, Essays in Under-standing, 1930-1954 (1994), edited by JeromeKohn, p. 154

Mr Chesterton was not mistaken in his vocationwhen he set out to write stories. He is a born story-teller, which is quite a different thing from being

a born novelist. The old trade of story-telling is,as he himself has said, a much older thing than themodern art of fiction. The Oriental who spread hiscarpet in the marketplace, the medieval bard whosang a ballad at his masters feast, made no appeal tothat curiosity about the varieties of the human soul

which is increasingly the inspiration of the modernnovel. If he touched on human psychology at allhe dealt only with those primal passions and desireswhich are common to all normal men. But, for theinterest of his art, he depended simply upon his ca-pacity to tell a good story, and to tell it well. In thelast resort, Mr. Chestertons novels depend for theirinterest on the same power.

Cecil Chesterton,G. K. Chesterton, a Criticism(1909)

In its fundamental conception, as well as in

many of the significant details of its working

out,Lord of the Rings is heavily indebted to G.

K. Chestertons now little read poem of 1911,The

Ballad of the White Horse.

The major theme of both works is the war and even-tual victory, despite all odds, of an alliance of goodfolk against vastly more powerful forces of evil, andthe return of a king to his rightful state. Like Lordof the Rings, Chestertons poem is set in a heroic so-ciety after the decay of a highly civilized imperialpower inEngland, that is to say, in the aftermathof the Roman Empire. (Tolkien's Minas Tirith, built

on seven levels, greatly resembles a medieval ide-alization of Rome.) King Alfred, its hero,is fight-ing a losing war to save his kingdom from completeconquest by the Danes. As one would expect withChesterton, it is a war of white against black, ofChristianityagainst a diabolicalpaganismthat hasdefeated Rome and is now trying to make all goodmen itsslaves. The enemy is not simply Danes,or barbarians in general, but a wholly malignant andalmost irresistible force that stands behind all the en-emies of Christianity: This power blights everythingit touches there

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