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G.K. Chesterton

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The Reformer is always right about what's wrong. However, he's often wrong about what is right.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Morality did not begin by one man saying to another, "I will not hit you if you do not hit me"; there is no trace of such a transaction. There IS a trace of both men having said, "We must not hit each other in the holy place.
From Heretics & Orthodoxy
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Topic: Religion
As regards moral courage, then, it is not so much that the public schools support it feebly, as that they suppress it firmly.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
According to most philosophers, God in making the world enslaved it. According to Christianity, in making it, He set it free. God had written, not so much a poem, but rather a play; a play he had planned as perfect, but which had necessarily been left to human actors and stage-managers, who had since made a great mess of it.
From Orthodoxy
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it.
From Orthodoxy
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death, Philosophical
If prosperity is regarded as the reward of virtue it will be regarded as the symptom of virtue. Men will leave off the heavy task of making good men successful. They will adopt the easier task of making our successful men good.
From Selected Essays
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Topic: Success
What is the good of words if they aren't important enough to quarrel over? Why do we choose one word more than another if there isn't any difference between them? If you called a woman a chimpanzee instead of an angel, wouldn't there be a quarrel about a word? If you're not going to argue about words, what are you going to argue about? Are you going to convey your meaning to me by moving your ears? The Church and the heresies always used to fight about words, because they are the only thing worth fighting about.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
I always like a dog so long as he isn't spelled backward.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
A religion is not the church a man goes to but the cosmos he lives in; and if any sceptic forgets it, the maddest fanatic beating an Orange drum about the Battle of the Boyne is a better philosopher than he.
From Irish Impressions
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
The wild worship of lawlessness and the materialist worship of law end in the same void. Nietzsche scales staggering mountains, but he turns up ultimately in Tibet. He sits down beside Tolstoy in the land of nothing and Nirvana. They are both helpless—one because he must not grasp anything, and the other because he must not let go of anything. The Tolstoyan’s will is frozen by a Buddhist instinct that all special actions are evil. But the Nietzscheite’s will is quite equally frozen by his view that all special actions are good; for if all special actions are good, none of them are special. They stand at the crossroads, and one hates all the roads and the other likes all the roads. The result is—well, some things are not hard to calculate. They stand at the cross-roads.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Philosophical
even nursery tales only echo an almost pre-natal leap of interest and amazement. These tales say that apples were golden only to refresh the forgotten moment when we found that they were green. They make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water.
From Orthodoxy
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Philosophical
Look at that blacksmith, for instance,” went on Father Brown calmly; “a good man, but not a Christian — hard, imperious, unforgiving. Well, his Scotch religion was made up by men who prayed on hills and high crags, and learnt to look down on the world more than to look up at heaven. Humility is the mother of giants. One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.
From The Innocence of Father Brown
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
The great Gaels of Ireland are the men that God made mad,
For all their wars are merry, and all their songs are sad.
From The Ballad of the White Horse
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Funny
the fundamental things in a man are not the things he explains, but rather the things he forgets to explain.
From The Superstition of Divorce
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Philosophical
The Skeleton

Chattering finch and water-fly
Are not merrier than I;
Here among the flowers I lie
Laughing everlastingly.
No: I may not tell the best;
Surely, friends, I might have guessed
Death was but the good King's jest,
It was hid so carefully.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death, Hope
A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.
From The Everlasting Man
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
The only persons who seem to have nothing to do with the education of the children are the parents.
From What's Wrong with the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
The Reformer is always right about what's wrong. However, he's often wrong about what is right.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Morality did not begin by one man saying to another, "I will not hit you if you do not hit me"; there is no trace of such a transaction. There IS a trace of both men having said, "We must not hit each other in the holy place.
From Heretics & Orthodoxy
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
As regards moral courage, then, it is not so much that the public schools support it feebly, as that they suppress it firmly.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
According to most philosophers, God in making the world enslaved it. According to Christianity, in making it, He set it free. God had written, not so much a poem, but rather a play; a play he had planned as perfect, but which had necessarily been left to human actors and stage-managers, who had since made a great mess of it.
From Orthodoxy
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it.
From Orthodoxy
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death, Philosophical
If prosperity is regarded as the reward of virtue it will be regarded as the symptom of virtue. Men will leave off the heavy task of making good men successful. They will adopt the easier task of making our successful men good.
From Selected Essays
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Success
What is the good of words if they aren't important enough to quarrel over? Why do we choose one word more than another if there isn't any difference between them? If you called a woman a chimpanzee instead of an angel, wouldn't there be a quarrel about a word? If you're not going to argue about words, what are you going to argue about? Are you going to convey your meaning to me by moving your ears? The Church and the heresies always used to fight about words, because they are the only thing worth fighting about.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
I always like a dog so long as he isn't spelled backward.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
A religion is not the church a man goes to but the cosmos he lives in; and if any sceptic forgets it, the maddest fanatic beating an Orange drum about the Battle of the Boyne is a better philosopher than he.
From Irish Impressions
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
The wild worship of lawlessness and the materialist worship of law end in the same void. Nietzsche scales staggering mountains, but he turns up ultimately in Tibet. He sits down beside Tolstoy in the land of nothing and Nirvana. They are both helpless—one because he must not grasp anything, and the other because he must not let go of anything. The Tolstoyan’s will is frozen by a Buddhist instinct that all special actions are evil. But the Nietzscheite’s will is quite equally frozen by his view that all special actions are good; for if all special actions are good, none of them are special. They stand at the crossroads, and one hates all the roads and the other likes all the roads. The result is—well, some things are not hard to calculate. They stand at the cross-roads.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Philosophical
even nursery tales only echo an almost pre-natal leap of interest and amazement. These tales say that apples were golden only to refresh the forgotten moment when we found that they were green. They make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water.
From Orthodoxy
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Philosophical
Look at that blacksmith, for instance,” went on Father Brown calmly; “a good man, but not a Christian — hard, imperious, unforgiving. Well, his Scotch religion was made up by men who prayed on hills and high crags, and learnt to look down on the world more than to look up at heaven. Humility is the mother of giants. One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.
From The Innocence of Father Brown
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
The great Gaels of Ireland are the men that God made mad,
For all their wars are merry, and all their songs are sad.
From The Ballad of the White Horse
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Funny
the fundamental things in a man are not the things he explains, but rather the things he forgets to explain.
From The Superstition of Divorce
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Philosophical
The Skeleton

Chattering finch and water-fly
Are not merrier than I;
Here among the flowers I lie
Laughing everlastingly.
No: I may not tell the best;
Surely, friends, I might have guessed
Death was but the good King's jest,
It was hid so carefully.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death, Hope
A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.
From The Everlasting Man
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
The only persons who seem to have nothing to do with the education of the children are the parents.
From What's Wrong with the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
The Reformer is always right about what's wrong. However, he's often wrong about what is right.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Morality did not begin by one man saying to another, "I will not hit you if you do not hit me"; there is no trace of such a transaction. There IS a trace of both men having said, "We must not hit each other in the holy place.
From Heretics & Orthodoxy
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
As regards moral courage, then, it is not so much that the public schools support it feebly, as that they suppress it firmly.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
According to most philosophers, God in making the world enslaved it. According to Christianity, in making it, He set it free. God had written, not so much a poem, but rather a play; a play he had planned as perfect, but which had necessarily been left to human actors and stage-managers, who had since made a great mess of it.
From Orthodoxy
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it.
From Orthodoxy
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death, Philosophical
If prosperity is regarded as the reward of virtue it will be regarded as the symptom of virtue. Men will leave off the heavy task of making good men successful. They will adopt the easier task of making our successful men good.
From Selected Essays
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Success
What is the good of words if they aren't important enough to quarrel over? Why do we choose one word more than another if there isn't any difference between them? If you called a woman a chimpanzee instead of an angel, wouldn't there be a quarrel about a word? If you're not going to argue about words, what are you going to argue about? Are you going to convey your meaning to me by moving your ears? The Church and the heresies always used to fight about words, because they are the only thing worth fighting about.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
I always like a dog so long as he isn't spelled backward.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
A religion is not the church a man goes to but the cosmos he lives in; and if any sceptic forgets it, the maddest fanatic beating an Orange drum about the Battle of the Boyne is a better philosopher than he.
From Irish Impressions
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
The wild worship of lawlessness and the materialist worship of law end in the same void. Nietzsche scales staggering mountains, but he turns up ultimately in Tibet. He sits down beside Tolstoy in the land of nothing and Nirvana. They are both helpless—one because he must not grasp anything, and the other because he must not let go of anything. The Tolstoyan’s will is frozen by a Buddhist instinct that all special actions are evil. But the Nietzscheite’s will is quite equally frozen by his view that all special actions are good; for if all special actions are good, none of them are special. They stand at the crossroads, and one hates all the roads and the other likes all the roads. The result is—well, some things are not hard to calculate. They stand at the cross-roads.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Philosophical
even nursery tales only echo an almost pre-natal leap of interest and amazement. These tales say that apples were golden only to refresh the forgotten moment when we found that they were green. They make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water.
From Orthodoxy
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Philosophical
Look at that blacksmith, for instance,” went on Father Brown calmly; “a good man, but not a Christian — hard, imperious, unforgiving. Well, his Scotch religion was made up by men who prayed on hills and high crags, and learnt to look down on the world more than to look up at heaven. Humility is the mother of giants. One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.
From The Innocence of Father Brown
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
The great Gaels of Ireland are the men that God made mad,
For all their wars are merry, and all their songs are sad.
From The Ballad of the White Horse
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Funny
the fundamental things in a man are not the things he explains, but rather the things he forgets to explain.
From The Superstition of Divorce
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Philosophical
The Skeleton

Chattering finch and water-fly
Are not merrier than I;
Here among the flowers I lie
Laughing everlastingly.
No: I may not tell the best;
Surely, friends, I might have guessed
Death was but the good King's jest,
It was hid so carefully.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death, Hope
A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.
From The Everlasting Man
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
The only persons who seem to have nothing to do with the education of the children are the parents.
From What's Wrong with the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
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