The historic glory of America lies in the fact that it is the one nation that was founded like a church. That is, it was founded on a faith that was not merely summed up after it had exited, but was defined before it existed.
GILBERT K. CHESTERTONBut the truth is that it is only by believing in God that we can ever criticise the Government. Once abolish the God, and the Government becomes the God.
More Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes
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Laughter has something in it common with the ancient words of faith and inspiration; it unfreezes pride and unwinds secrecy; it makes people forget themselves in the presence of something greater than themselves.
GILBERT K. CHESTERTON -
An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.
GILBERT K. CHESTERTON -
Truths turn into dogmas the minute they are disputed.
GILBERT K. CHESTERTON -
Science must not impose any philosophy, any more than the telephone must tell us what to say.
GILBERT K. CHESTERTON -
It is shorter to state the things forbidden than the things permitted; precisely because most things are permitted and only a few things forbidden.
GILBERT K. CHESTERTON -
Very few reputations are gained by unsullied virtue.
GILBERT K. CHESTERTON -
Modern toleration is really a tyranny. It is a tyranny because it is a silence.
GILBERT K. CHESTERTON -
When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.
GILBERT K. CHESTERTON -
I never could see anything wrong in sensationalism; and I am sure our society is suffering more from secrecy than from flamboyant revelations.
GILBERT K. CHESTERTON -
People talk of the pathos and failure of plain women; but it is a more terrible thing that a beautiful woman may succeed in everything but womanhood.
GILBERT K. CHESTERTON -
A society is in decay, final or transitional, when common sense really becomes uncommon.
GILBERT K. CHESTERTON -
Education is the period during which you are being instructed by somebody you do not know, about something you do not want to know.
GILBERT K. CHESTERTON -
The State did not own men so entirely, even when it could send them to the stake, as it sometimes does now where it can send them to the elementary school.
GILBERT K. CHESTERTON -
One elephant having a trunk was odd; but all elephants having trunks looked like a plot.
GILBERT K. CHESTERTON -
At the back of our brains is a blaze of astonishment at our own existence. The object of the artistic and spiritual life is to dig for this sunrise of wonder.
GILBERT K. CHESTERTON