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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.

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.
Matter
Begins
Mean
Matters
Long
Mere
Platitude
Really
Strength
Platitudes
Things
Virtue
Flattery
Hope
Hoping
Means
Hopeful
Everything
Hopeless

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The Devil's walking parody On all four-footed things.
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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 aim of good prose words is to mean what they say. The aim of good poetical words is to mean what they do not say.
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All we know of the Missing Link is that he is missing - and he won't be missed either.
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Thanks are the highest form of thought.
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I was planning to go into architecture. But when I arrived, architecture was filled up. Acting was right next to it, so I signed up for acting instead.
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In the fairy tale, an incomprehensible happiness rests upon an incomprehensible condition. A box is opened and all evils fly out. A word is forgotten and cities perish. A lamp is lit and love flies away. An apple is eaten and the hope of God is gone.
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The men of the East may spell the stars, And times and triumphs mark, But the men signed of the cross of Christ Go gaily in the dark.
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There is no logical connection between flying and laying eggs.
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Where does a wise man kick a pebble? On the beach. Where does a wise man hide a leaf? In the forest.
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The man of the true religious tradition understands two things: liberty and obedience. The first means knowing what you really want. The second means knowing what you really trust.
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The whole curse of the last century has been what is called the Swing of the Pendulum that is, the idea that Man must go alternately from one extreme to the other. It is a shameful and even shocking fancy it is the denial of the whole dignity of the mankind. When Man is alive he stands still. It is only when he is dead that he swings.
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Eugenics asserts that all men must be so stupid that they cannot manage their own affairs and also so clever that they can manage each other's.
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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 thing that cannot be defined is the first thing the primary fact.
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To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.
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I am the fool in this story, and no rebel shall hurl me from my throne.
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Education is implication. It is not the things you say which children respect when you say things, they very commonly laugh and do the opposite. It is the things you assume which really sink into them. It is the things you forget even to teach that they learn.
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Truths turn into dogmas the instant that they are disputed. Thus every man who utters a doubt defines a religion.
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