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Destiny is but a phrase of the weak human heart - the dark apology for every error. The strong and virtuous admit no destiny. On earth conscience guides in heaven God watches. And destiny is but the phantom we invoke to silence the one and dethrone the other.

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.
Human
Destiny
Phrase
Humans
Weak
Virtuous
Heart
Watches
Phrases
Every
Silence
Error
Dethrone
Dark
Admit
Phantom
Heaven
Guides
Invoke
Strong
Errors
Phantoms
Earth
Conscience
Apology

More quotes by Gilbert K. Chesterton

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And it is always the humble man who talks too much the proud man watches himself too closely.
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When we really worship anything, we love not only its clearness but its obscurity. We exult in its very invisibility.
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The great ideals of the past failed not by being outlived (which must mean over-lived), but by not being lived enough. Mankind has not passed through the Middle Ages. Rather mankind has retreated from the Middle Ages in reaction and rout. The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.
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Happiness is a mystery, like religion, and should never be rationalised.
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The trouble with Christianity is, not that its failed, but that it's never been tried . . . not that it can't remake the world, but that it's difficult.
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By all men bond to Nothing, Being slaves without a lord, By one blind idiot world obeyed, Too blind to be abhorred.
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To the humble man, and to the humble man alone, the sun is really a sun to the humble man, and to the humble man alone, the sea is really a sea.
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Drink because you are happy, but never because you are miserable.
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All men matter. You matter. I matter. It's the hardest thing in theology to believe.
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If the apple hit Newton’s nose, Newton’s nose hit the apple.
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If I think the universe is triangular, and you think it is square, there cannot be room for two universes. We may argue politely, we may argue humanely, we may argue with great mutual benefit: but, obviously, we must argue.
Gilbert K. Chesterton
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A modern vegetarian is also a teetotaler, yet there is no obvious connection between consuming vegetables and not consuming fermented vegetables. A drunkard, when lifted laboriously out of the gutter, might well be heard huskily to plead that he had fallen there through excessive devotion to a vegetable diet.
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Fable is more historical than fact, because fact tells us about one man and fable tells us about a million men.
Gilbert K. Chesterton
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The books that influence the world are those that it has not read.
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We do not need to get good laws to restrain bad people. We need to get good people to restrain us from bad laws.
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Only man can be absurd: for only man can be dignified.
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Are you a devil? I am a man, answered Father Brown gravely and therefore have all devils in my heart.
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Do not be so open-minded that your brains fall out.
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Because our expression is imperfect we need friendship to fill up the imperfections.
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Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all. And faith means believing the incredible, or it is no virtue at all.
Gilbert K. Chesterton