Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

It is assumed that the skeptic has no bias; whereas he has a very obvious bias in favour of skepticism.

Wit is a sword; it is meant to make people feel the point as well as see it.

What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place…The old humility was a spur that prevented a man from stopping; not a nail in his boot that prevented him from going on. For the old humility made a man doubtful about his efforts, which made him work harder. But the new humility makes a man doubtful about his aims, which will make him stop working altogether.

The aim of good prose words is to mean what they say. The aim of good poetical words is to mean what they do not say.

I am going to hold a pistol to the head of the Modern Man. But I shall not use it to kill him–only to bring him to life.

Certain new theologians dispute original sin, which is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved.

A really great person is the person who makes every person feel great.

There are no wise few. Every aristocracy that has ever existed has behaved, in all essential points, exactly like a small mob.

The free man owns himself. He can damage himself with either eating or drinking; he can ruin himself with gambling. If he does he is certainly a damn fool, and he might possibly be a damned soul; but if he may not, he is not a free man any more than a dog.

Nobody notices postmen, yet they have passions like other men.

Comradeship is obvious and universal and open; but it is only one kind of affection; it has characteristics that would destroy any other kind. Anyone who has known true comradeship in a club or in a regiment, knows that it is impersonal.

As regards moral courage, then, it is not so much that the public schools support it feebly, as that they suppress it firmly.