quoth/tag/chesterton

Quote #3191

Fri, 07 May 2010 14:09:22 -0700

Now, it is worthy of remark that [Thomism] is the only working philosophy. Of nearly all other philosophies it is strictly true that their followers work in spite of them, or do not work at all. No sceptics work sceptically; no fatalists work fatalistically; all without exception work on the principle that it is possible to assume what it is not possible to believe. No materialist who thinks his mind was made up for him, by mud and blood and heredity, has any hesitation in making up his mind. No sceptic who believes that truth is subjective has any hesitation about treating it as objective.
- G.K. Chesterton
Book: Saint Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox

Quote #3169

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 15:22:03 -0700

Now a child is the very sign and sacrament of personal freedom. He is a fresh free will added to the wills of the world; he is something that his parents have freely chosen to produce and which they freely agree to protect. They can feel that any amusement he gives (which is often considerable) really comes from him and from them, and from nobody else. He has been born without the intervention of any master or lord. He is a creation and a contribution; he is their own creative contribution to creation. He is also a much more beautiful, wonderful, amusing and astonishing thing than any of the stale stories or jingling jazz tunes turned out bv the machines. When men no longer feel that he is so, they have lost the appreciation of primary things, and therefore all sense of proportion about the world. People who prefer the mechanical pleasures, to such a miracle, are jaded and enslaved. They are preferring the very dregs of life to the first fountains of life. They are preferring the last, crooked, indirect, borrowed, repeated and exhausted things of our dying Capitalist civilisation, to the reality which is the only rejuvenation of all civilisation. It is they who are hugging the chains of their old slavery; it is the child who is ready for the new world.
- G.K. Chesterton
Book: The Well and the Shallows

Quote #3087

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 21:43:48 -0800

We should always endeavor to wonder at the permanent thing, not at the mere exception. We should be startled by the sun, and not the eclipse. We should wonder less at the earthquake, and wonder more at the earth.
- G. K. Chesterton
ILN, October 21, 1905, CW 27:41.

Quote #3055

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:08:39 -0700

I had thought of calling the next sort of superficial people the Idealists; but I think this implies a humility towards impersonal good they hardly show; so I call them the Autocrats. They are those who give us generally to understand that every modern reform will "work" all right, because they will be there to see. Where they will be, and for how long, they do not explain very clearly. I do not mind their looking forward to numberless lives in succession; for that is the shadow of a human or divine hope. But even a theosophist does not expect to be a vast number of people at once. And these people most certainly propose to be responsible for a whole movement after it has left their hands. Each man promises to be about a thousand policemen. If you ask them how this or that will work, they will answer, "Oh, I would certainly insist on this"; or "I would never go so far as that"; as if they could return to this earth and do what no ghost has ever done quite successfully --- force men to forsake their sins. Of these it is enough to say that they do not understand the nature of a law any more than the nature of a dog. If you let loose a law, it will do as a dog does. It will obey its own nature, not yours. Such sense as you have put into the law (or the dog) will be fulfilled. But you will not be able to fulfill a fragment of anything you have forgotten to put into it.
- G. K. Chesterton
Book: Eugenics and Other Evils

Quote #3031

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 20:18:09 -0700

Not only can...fairy-tales be enjoyed because they are moral, but morality can be enjoyed because it puts us in fairyland, in a world at once of wonder and of war.
- G.K. Chesterton
Essay: Fairy Tales

Quote #3021

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:59:49 -0700

Men who lose traditions abandon themselves to conventions.
- G.K. Chesterton
Essay: The Romance of a Rascal

Quote #3020

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:56:39 -0700

Modern men are not familiar with the rational arguments for tradition; but they are familiar, and almost wearily familiar, with the rational arguments for change.
- G.K. Chesterton
Essay: The New Groove

Quote #3019

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:52:43 -0700

For what is the matter with most of what calls itself the modern mind is simply grooves; and our habit of being content in the grooves, because we are told that they are grooves of change... Its only form of progress is going quicker and quicker along one line in one direction. It has not the curiosity to stop, nor the adventurous courage to go backwards... Now, in spite of the wildest claims to independence, the intellectual life of today still strikes me as being mainly symbolized by the train or the track or the groove. There is any amount of fuss and vivacity about certain fixed fashions or directions of thought; just as there is any amount of rapidity along the fixed rails of the railway-track. But if we begin to think about really getting off the track, we shall find that what is true of the train is equally true of the truth. We shall find it is actually harder to get out of the groove, when the train is going fast, than when the train is going slowly. We shall find that rapidity is rigidity; that the very fact of some social or political or artistic movement going quicker and quicker means that fewer peopole have the courage to move against it. And at last perhaps nobody will make a leap for real intellectual liberty, just as nobody will jump out of a railway-train at eighty miles an hour. This seems to me the primary mark of what we call progressive thought in the modern world.
- G.K. Chesterton
Essay: The New Groove

Quote #3018

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:28:29 -0700

It cannot be right that religion should be the dullest of subjects. There must be something wrong if the most important human business is also the least exciting. There must be something wrong if everything is not interesting.
- G.K. Chesterton
Essay: Reading the Riddle

Quote #3017

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:21:19 -0700

There is no better test of a man's ultimate chivalry and integrity than how he behaves when he is wrong.
- G.K. Chesterton
Essay: The Real Dr. Johnson

Quote #3016

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:21:35 -0700

It is always the humble man who talks too much; the proud man watches himself too closely.
- G.K. Chesterton
Book: The Man Who Was Thursday

Quote #3001

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 02:24:36 -0800

The issue is now quite clear. It is between light and darkness; and everyone must choose his side.
- G.K. Chesterton
Speech: Chesterton awoke from semi-consciousness to declare these words before passing on.

Quote #2978

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:02:36 -0800

Every one of the popular modern phrases and ideals is a dodge in order to shirk the problem of what is good. We are fond of talking about "liberty;" that, as we talk of it, is a dodge to avoid discussing what is good. We are fond of talking about "progress:' that is a dodge to avoid discussing what is good. We are fond of talking about "education;" that is a dodge to avoid discussing what is good. The modern man says, "Let us leave all these arbitrary standards and embrace liberty." That is, logically rendered, "Let us not decide what is good, but let it be considered good not to decide it." He says, "Away with your old moral formulae; I am for progress." This, logically stated, means, "Let us not settle what is good; but let us settle whether we are getting more of it." He says, "Neither in religion nor morality, my friend, lie the hopes of the race, but in education." This, clearly expressed means, "We cannot decide what is good, but let us give it to our children."
- G.K. Chesterton
Book: Heretics

Quote #2976

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:06:19 -0800

Modern "broadmindedness" has a quality that can only be called sneakish; it endeavors to win without giving itself away, even after it has won. It desires to be victorious without betraying even the name of the victor. For all sane men have intellectual doctrines and fighting theories; and if they will not put them on the table, it can only be because they wish to have the advantage of a fighting theory which cannot be fought.
- G.K. Chesterton
Essay: Rabelaisian Regrets

Quote #2969

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 23:48:26 -0800

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.
- G.K. Chesterton
Book: What’s Wrong With the World

Quote #2964

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:46:54 -0800

Most Eugenists are Euphemists. I mean merely that short words startle them, while long words soothe them. And they are utterly incapable of translating the one into the other, however obviously they mean the same thing. Say to them "The persuasive and even coercive powers of the citizen should enable him to make sure that the burden of longevity in the previous generation does not become disproportionate and intolerable, especially to the females"; say this to them and they will sway slightly to and fro like babies sent to sleep in cradles. Say to them "Murder your mother," and they sit up quite suddenly. Yet the two sentences, in cold logic, are exactly the same.
- G.K. Chesterton

Quote #2961

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:14:21 -0700

The Church and the heresies always used to fight about words, because they are the only thing worth fighting about.
- G.K. Chesterton

Quote #2823

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:18:16 -0700

Man is always influenced by thought of some kind, his own or somebody else's; that of somebody he trusts or that of somebody he never heard of, thought at first, second or third hand; thought from exploded legends or unverified rumours; but always something with the shadow of a system of values and a reason for preference. A man does test everything by something. The question here is whether he has ever tested the test.
- G.K. Chesterton
Essay: The Revival of Philosophy—Why?

Quote #2820

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 22:28:51 -0700

Of the idea of Predestination there are broadly two views; the Calvinist and the Catholic... It is the difference between believing that God knows, as a fact, that I choose to go to the devil; and believing that God has given me to the devil, without my having any choice at all.
- G.K. Chesterton
Book: The Thing

Quote #2812

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 02:44:49 -0700

Idolatry is committed, not merely by setting up false gods, but also by setting up false devils; by making men afraid of war or alcohol, or economic law, when they should be afraid of spiritual corruption and cowardice.
- G. K. Chesterton
Article: Illustrated London News (11 September 1909)

Quote #2807

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:06:15 -0800

The sound rule in the matter would appear to be like many other sound rules--a paradox. 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.
- G. K. Chesterton
Book: Heretics

Quote #2604

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 10:57:04 -0800

Evolution is a good example of that modern intelligence which, if it destroys anything, destroys itself. Evolution is either an innocent scientific description of how certain earthly things came about; or, if it is anything more than this, it is an attack upon thought itself. If evolution destroys anything, it does not destroy religion but rationalism. If evolution simply means that a positive thing called an ape turned very slowly into a positive thing called a man, then it is stingless for the most orthodox; for a personal God might just as well do things slowly as quickly, especially if, like the Christian God, he were outside time. But if it means anything more, it means that there is no such thing as an ape to change, and no such thing as a man for him to change into. It means that there is no such thing as a thing. At best, there is only one thing, and that is a flux of everything and anything. This is an attack not upon the faith, but upon the mind; you cannot think if there are no things to think about. You cannot think if you are not separate from the subject of thought.
- G. K. Chesterton
Book: Orthodoxy

Quote #2603

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 10:53:22 -0800

Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all. If you are merely a sceptic, you must sooner or later ask yourself the question, "Why should anything go right; even observation and deduction? Why should not good logic be as misleading as bad logic? They are both movements in the brain of a bewildered ape?"
- G. K Chesterton
Book: Orthodoxy

Quote #2601

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 23:48:44 -0800

My best friends are all either bottomless sceptics or quite uncontrollable believers, so our discussion at luncheon turned upon the most ultimate and terrible ideas. And the whole argument worked out ultimately to this: that the question is whether a man can be certain of anything at all. I think he can be certain, for if (as I said to my friend, furiously brandishing an empty bottle) it is impossible intellectually to entertain certainty, what is this certainty which it is impossible to entertain? If I have never experienced such a thing as certainty I cannot even say that a thing is not certain. Similarly, if I have never experienced such a thing as green I cannot even say that my nose is not green. It may be as green as possible for all I know if I have really no experience of greenness. So we shouted at each other and shook the room; because metaphysics is the only thoroughly emotional thing. And the difference between us was very deep, because it was a difference as to the object of the whole thing called broad-mindedness or the opening of the intellect. For my friend said that he opened his intellect as the sun opens the fans of a palm tree, opening for opening's sake, opening infinitely for ever. But I said that I opened my intellect as I opened my mouth, in order to shut it again on something solid.
- G. K. Chesterton
Essay: The Extrordinary Cabman

Quote #2593

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 11:36:09 -0800

He forgets that it is a deduction at all and treats it as a first principle. He might discover that the whole calculation is a mis-calculation... But he has forgotten that it is a calculation, and is almost ready to contradict the sun if it does not fit into the Solar System.
- G. K. Chesterton
Book: The Everlasting Man

Quote #2589

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 11:16:21 -0800

It is incomprehensible to me that any thinker can calmly call himself a modernist; he might as well call himself a Thursdayite. But apart altogether from that particular disturbance, I am conscious of a general irritation expressed against the people who boast of their advancement and modernity in the discussion of religion. But I never succeeded in saying the quite clear and obvious thing that is really the matter with modernism. The real objection to modernism is simply that it is a form of snobbishness. It is an attempt to crush a rational opponent not by reason, but by some mystery of superiority, by hinting that one is specially up to date or particularly "in the know." To flaunt the fact that we have had all the last books from Germany is simply vulgar; like flaunting the fact that we have had all the last bonnets from Paris. To introduce into philosophical discussions a sneer at a creed's antiquity is like introducing a sneer at a lady's age. It is caddish because it is irrelevant.
- G. K. Chesterton
Book: All Things Considered

Quote #2588

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 10:11:47 -0800

At any street corner we may meet a man who utters the frantic and blasphemous statement that he may be wrong. Every day one comes across somebody who says that of course his view may not be the right one. Of course his view must be the right one, or it is not his view.
- G. K. Chesterton
Book: Orthodoxy

Quote #2580

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 23:26:20 -0800

Nobody can imagine how nothing could turn into something. Nobody can get an inch nearer to it by explaining how something could turn into something else... An event is not any more intrinsically intelligible or unintelligible because of the pace at which it moves. For a man who does not believe in a miracle, a slow miracle would be just as incredible as a swift one... The ultimate question is why they go at all; and anybody who really understands that question will know that it always has been and always will be a religious question; or at any rate a philosophical or metaphysical question, and most certainly he will not think the question answered by some substitution of gradual for abrupt change.
- G. K. Chesterton
Book: The Everlasting Man

Quote #2576

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 22:58:57 -0800

What I mean by the slavery of the mind is that state in which men do not know of the alternative. It is something which clogs the imagination, like a drug or a mesmeric sleep, so that a person cannot possibly think of certain things at all. It is not the state in which he says, "I see what you mean; but I cannot think that because I sincerely think this" (which is simply rational): it is one in which he has never thought of the other view; and therefore does not even know that he has never thought of it... The thing I mean is man's inability to state his opponent's view; and often his inability even to state his own.
- G. K. Chesterton
Book: The Thing

Quote #2575

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 21:36:34 -0800

For the modern world will accept no dogmas upon any authority; but it will accept any dogmas on no authority. Say that a thing is so, according to the Pope or the Bible, and it will be dismissed as a superstition without examination. But preface your remark merely with "they say" or "don't you know that?" or try (and fail) to remember the name of some professor mentioned in some newspaper and the keen rationalism of the modern mind will accept every word you say.
- G. K. Chesterton
Book: The Superstition of Divorce

Quote #2566

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 12:50:57 -0800

Toleration is the virtue of those who believe in nothing.
- G. K. Chesterton

Quote #2565

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 12:43:59 -0800

An adventure is, by nature, a thing that comes to us. It is a thing that chooses us, not a thing that we choose. . . [In] order that life should be a story or romance to us, it is necessary that a great part of it, at any rate, should be settled for us without our permission . . . The thing which keeps life romantic and full of fiery possibilities is the existence of these great plain limitations which force all of us to meet the things we do not like or do not expect.
- G. K. Chesterton
Book: Heretics