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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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Beaconsfield
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Gilbert Keith Chesterton
Gilbert K. Chesterton
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More quotes by Gilbert K. Chesterton

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It is absurd for the Evolutionist to complain that it is unthinkable for an admittedly unthinkable God to make everything out of nothing and then pretend that it is more thinkable that nothing should turn itself into everything.
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It is assumed that the skeptic has no bias whereas he has a very obvious bias in favour of skepticism.
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Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all... As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength.
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I am the fool in this story, and no rebel shall hurl me from my throne.
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An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.
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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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We talk of wild animals but man is the only wild animal. It is man that has broken out. All other animals are tame animals following the rugged respectability of the tribe or type.
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Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance.
Gilbert K. Chesterton
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Every man is important if he loses his lifeand every man is funny if he loses his hat and has to run after it.
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There are no new lies, no new heresies. Man is simply not that creative.
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There is no bigot like the atheist.
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Every one of the great revolutionists, from Isaiah to Shelley, have been optimists. They have been indignant, not about the badness of existence, but about the slowness of men in realizing its goodness.
Gilbert K. Chesterton
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The trouble with always trying to preserve the health of the body is that it is so difficult to do without destroying the health of the mind.
Gilbert K. Chesterton
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There have been household gods and household saints and household fairies. I am not sure that there have yet been any factory gods or factory saints or factory fairies. I may be wrong, as I am no commericial expert, but I have not heard of them as yet.
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The man who says, 'my country right or wrong' is like the man who says, 'my mother drunk or sober'
Gilbert K. Chesterton
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Journalism largely consists of saying 'Lord Jones is Dead' to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive.
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Men did not love Rome because she was great. She was great because they had loved her.
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I am a journalist and have no earthly motives except curiosity and personal vanity.
Gilbert K. Chesterton
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The honest poor can sometimes forget poverty. The honest rich can never forget it.
Gilbert K. Chesterton
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Every time a man knocks on a brothel door, he is really knocking for God
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