1,399 Quotes by Gilbert K. Chesterton

I did try to found a little heresy of my own; and when I had put the last touches to it, I discovered that it was orthodoxy.

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.

If you know what a man's doing, get in front of him; but if you want to guess what he's doing keep behind him.

When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.

There are two kinds of charlatan: the man who is called a charlatan, and the man who really is one. The first is the quack who cures you; the second is the highly qualified person who doesn't.

It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong.

It is the chief value of legend to mix up the centuries while preserving the sentiment.

Why be something to everybody when you can be everything to somebody?

I still hold. . .that the suburbs ought to be either glorified by romance and religion or else destroyed by fire from heaven, or even by firebrands from the earth.