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The truth is, of course, that the curtness of the Ten Commandments is an evidence, not of the gloom and narrowness of a religion, but, on the contrary, of its liberality and humanity. It is shorter to state the things forbidden than the things permitted precisely because most things are permitted, and only a few things are forbidden.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

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Gilbert K. Chesterton
Age: 62 †
Born: 1874
Born: May 29
Died: 1936
Died: June 14
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Gilbert Keith Chesterton
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A detective story generally describes six living men discussing how it is that a man is dead. A modern philosophic story generally describes six dead men discussing how any man can possibly be alive.
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The scientific facts, which were supposed to contradict the faith in the nineteenth century, are nearly all of them regarded as unscientific fictions in the twentieth century.
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There are many books which we think we have read when we have not. There are, at least, many that we think we remember when we do not. An original picture was, perhaps, imprinted upon the brain, but it has changed with our own changing minds. We only remember our remembrance.
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Against a dark sky, all flowers look like fireworks.
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The people has no definite disbelief in the temples of theology. The people has a very fiery and practical disbelief in the temples of physical science.
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A man is angry at a libel because it is false, but at a satire because it is true.
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Idolatry is when you worship what you should use, and use what you should worship.
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In the end it will not matter to us whether we wrote well or ill whether we fought with flails or reeds. It will matter to us greatly on what side we fought.
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The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly the rich have always objected to being governed at all.
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Original sin is the only doctrine that's been empirically validated by 2,000 years of human history.
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The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.
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Americans are a very backward people, with all the real virtues of a backward people the patriarchal simplicity and human dignity of a democracy, and a respect for labor uncorrupted by cynicism.
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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.
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Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.
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Men rush towards complexity, but they yearn towards simplicity. They try to be kings but they dream of being shepherds.
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Man must have just enough faith in himself to have adventures, and just enough doubt of himself to enjoy them.
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Puritanism was an honourable mood it was a noble fad. In other words, it was a highly creditable mistake.
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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.
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And all over the world, the old literature, the popular literature, is the same. It consists of very dignified sorrow and very undignified fun. Its sad tales are of broken hearts its happy tales are of broken heads.
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One of the chief uses of religion is that it makes us remember our coming from darkness, the simple fact that we are created.
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