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The materialist theory of history, that all politics and ethics are the expression of economics, is a very simple fallacy indeed. It consists simply of confusing the necessary conditions of life with the normal preoccupations of life, that are quite a different thing.

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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And Noah he often said to his wife when he sat down to dine, I don't care where the water goes if it doesn't get into the wine.
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Comradeship is obvious and universal and open but it is only one kind of affection it has characteristics that would destroy any other kind. Anyone who has known true comradeship in a club or in a regiment, knows that it is impersonal.
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Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home.
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The Darwinian movement has made no difference to mankind, except that, instead of talking unphilosophically about philosophy, they now talk unscientifically about science.
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To desire money is much nobler than to desire success. Desiring money may mean desiring to return to your country, or marry the woman you love, or ransom your father from brigands. But desiring success must mean that you take an abstract pleasure in the unbrotherly act of distancing and disgracing other men.
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I am myself so exceedingly Nordic, as far as physical constitution is concerned, that I can enjoy almost any weather except what is called glorious weather. At the end of a few days, I am left wondering how the men of the Mediterranean ever managed to do almost all the most active and astonishing things that have been done.
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Tea, although an OrientalIs a gentleman at leastCocoa is a cad and coward,Cocoa is a vulgar beast.
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But since he stood for England And knew what England means, Unless you give him bacon You must not give him beans.
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I say that a man must be certain of his morality for the simple reason that he has to suffer for it.
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The chief object of education is not to learn things but to unlearn things.
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By experts in poverty I do not mean sociologists, but poor men.
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It is very good for a man to talk about what he does not understand as long as he understands that he does not understand it.
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Bigotry may be roughly defined as the anger of men who have no opinions.
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The man who lives in contact with what he believes to be a living Church is a man always expecting to meet Plato and Shakespeare tomorrow at breakfast. He is always expecting to see some truth that he has never seen before.
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There is also an insulting speech about 'one grey day just like another'. You might as well talk about one green tree like another.
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The hands that had made the sun and stars were too small to reach the huge heads of the cattle. Upon this paradox, we might almost say upon this jest, all the literature of our faith is founded.
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Faith means believing the unbelievable.
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Leisure is being allowed to do nothing.
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One can hardly think too little of one's self. One can hardly think too much of one's soul.
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There is no obligation on us to be richer, or busier, or more efficient, or more productive, or more progressive, or any way worldlier or wealthier, if it does not make us happier.
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