1,399 Quotes by Gilbert K. Chesterton

The only object of liberty is life.

Modern intelligence won't accept anything on authority. But it will accept anything without authority.

The wisest thing in the world is to cry out before you are hurt. It is no good to cry out after you are hurt; especially after you are mortally hurt. People talk about the impatience of the populace; but sound historians know that most tyrannies have been possible because men moved too late. it is often essential to resist a tyranny before it exists.

You never know the best about men until you know the worst about them.

Even in an empire of atheists the dead man is always sacred.

We have not made cricket and football [soccer] professional because of any astonishing avarice or new vulgarity. We have made them professional because we would have them perfect. We have dedicated men to them as to some god of inhuman excellence. We care more for football than for the fun of playing football.

What are we going to do?" asked the Professor. "At this moment," said Syme, with a scientific detachment, "I think we are going to smash into a lamppost.

Do not look at the faces in the illustrated papers. Look at the faces in the street.

I always like a dog so long as he isn't spelled backward.