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Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes - Page 9

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Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all. And faith means believing the incredible, or it is no virtue at all.

Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all. And faith means believing the incredible, or it is no virtue at all.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Faith, Believe, Inspiration
Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.185, Simon and Schuster

Drink because you are happy, but never because you are miserable. Never drink when you are wretched without it, or you will be like the grey-faced gin-drinker in the slum; but drink when you would be happy without it, and you will be like the laughing peasant of Italy. Never drink because you need it, for this is rational drinking, and the way to death and hell. But drink because you do not need it, for this is irrational drinking, and the ancient health of the world.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Drinking, Laughing, Would Be
Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.163, Simon and Schuster

A man does not know what he is saying until he knows what he is not saying.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Knowledge, Men, Doe

Too much capitalism does not mean too many capitalists, but too few capitalists.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Mean, Doe, Too Much

There are no words to express the abyss between isolation and having one ally. It may be conceded to the mathematician that four is twice two. But two is not twice one; two is two thousand times one.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Two, Allies, Four
"The Man Who Was Thursday". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, Ch. VIII : The Professor Explains, 1908.

The books that influence the world are those that it has not read.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Book, World, Influence

You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Inspirational, Thanksgiving, Thankful

There are some desires that are not desirable.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Desire, Morality, Desirable
Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.92, Simon and Schuster

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

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Country, Scum Of The Earth, Rich
'The Flying Inn' (1914) ch. 15

Idolatry is when you worship what you should use, and use what you should worship.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Use, Worship, Should

The modern world seems to have no notion of preserving different things side by side, of allowing its proper and proportionate place to each, of saving the whole varied heritage of culture. It has no notion except that of simplifying something by destroying nearly everything.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Different, Culture, Heritage
"Holding on to Romanticism". "The Illustrated London News" Magazine, May 2, 1931.

A stiff apology is a second insult... The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Forgiveness, Im Sorry, Hurt

Democracy is reproached with saying that the majority is always right. But progress says that the minority is always right.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Democracy, Progress, Majority

When a politician is in opposition he is an expert on the means to some end; and when he is in office he is an expert on the obstacles to it.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Mean, Office, Experts
Illustrated London News, April 6, 1918.

The modern world... has no notion except that of simplifying something by destroying nearly everything.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Simplicity, World, Modern

Meaninglessness does not come from being weary of pain. Meaninglessness comes from being weary of pleasure.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Pain, Doe, Pleasure

There are two ways of getting home; and one of them is to stay there.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Inspiring, Travel, Home
"The Everlasting Man" by Gilbert K. Chesterton, (Introduction: The Plan Of This Book), 1925.

There are no new lies, no new heresies. Man is simply not that creative.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Lying, Men, Creative

The Reformer is always right about what's wrong. However, he's often wrong about what is right.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Reformers

That is the one eternal education: to be sure enough that something is true that you dare to tell it to a child.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Children, Enough, Dare
Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.328, Simon and Schuster

There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Graduation, Hope, Carpe Diem
"The Everlasting Man". Book by G. K. Chesterton, V: Man and Mythologies, 1925.

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 educational addresses, psychological criticisms, and complaints against nursery rhymes or other normal amusements of mankind.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Educational, Two, People
"Child Psychology and Nonsense" by Gilbert K. Chesterton, October 15, 1921.

Pessimism is not in being tired of evil but in being tired of good. Despair does not lie in being weary of suffering, but in being weary of joy. It is when for some reason or other good things in a society no longer work that the society begins to decline; when its food does not feed, when its cures do not cure, when its blessings refuse to bless.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Lying, Tired, Blessing
"The Everlasting Man". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, VIII: The End of the World, 1925.

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

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Sometimes, Persons, Right Person
"The Sins of Prince Saradine: A Father Brown Mystery". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, 1911.

Journalism largely consists of saying 'Lord Jones is Dead' to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive.

Gilbert K. Chesterton
Funny, Business, Humor
"The style guide editor on ... peer pressure and using people's proper names" by David Marsh, www.theguardian.com. December 8, 2013.

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