Quote

I believe what really happens in history is this: the old man is always wrong and the young people are always wrong about what is wrong with him. The practical form it takes is this: that, while the old man may stand by some stupid custom, the young man always attacks it with some theory that turns out to be equally stupid.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

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Gilbert K. Chesterton
Age: 62 †
Born: 1874
Born: May 29
Died: 1936
Died: June 14
Autobiographer
Biographer
Crime Writer
Essayist
Historian
Illustrator
Journalist
Literary Historian
Novelist
Opinion Journalist
Philosopher
Beaconsfield
Buckinghamshire
Gilbert Keith Chesterton
Gilbert K. Chesterton
Gilbert Chesterton
G.K. Chesterton
G. K. C.
Really
Wrong
Customs
Always
Turns
Practicals
Men
History
Practical
People
Happens
Equally
Form
Theory
Young
Stupid
Custom
May
Stand
Timeless
Believe
Takes
Attacks

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We are justified in enforcing good morals, for they belong to all mankind but we are not justified in enforcing good manners, for good manners always mean our own manners.
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The aim of life is appreciation there is no sense in not appreciating things and there is no sense in having more of them if you have less appreciation of them.
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It is hard to make government representative when it is also remote.
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No man can be merry unless he is serious.
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The most valuable book we can read, about countries we have visited, is that which recalls to us something that we did notice, but did not notice that we noticed.
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Do not free a camel of the burden of his hump you may be freeing him from being a camel.
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Every work of art has one indispensable mark ... the center of it is simple, however much the fulfillment may be complicated.
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We have all forgotten what we really are. All that we call common sense and rationality and practicality and positivism only means that for certain dead levels of our life we forget that we have forgotten. All that we call spirit and art and ecstasy only means that for one awful instant we remember that we forget.
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Most Americans ... have a sort of permanent intoxication from within, a sort of invisible champagne.
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There is more to life than increasing its speed. Gandhi gave my life to become the person I am right now. Was it worth it? Richard Bach Life exists for the love of music or beautiful things.
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Those thinkers who cannot believe in any gods often assert that the love of humanity would be in itself sufficient for them and so, perhaps, it would, if they had it.
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Life is serious all the time, but living cannot be. You may have all the solemnity you wish in your neckties, but in anything important (such as sex, death, and religion), you must have mirth or you will have madness.
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The present condition of fame is merely fashion.
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We cannot fling ourselves into the blank future we can only call up images from the past. This being so, the important principle follows, that how many images we have largely depends on how much past we have.
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When giving treats to friends or children, give them what they like, emphatically not what is good for them.
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The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.
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The purpose of Compulsory Education is to deprive the common people of their commonsense.
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It is generally the man who is not ready to argue, who is ready to sneer.
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All men are ordinary men the extraordinary men are those who know it.
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Whether a man chooses to tell the truth in long sentences or short jokes is a problem analogous to whether he chooses to tell the truth in French or in German.
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