The quotations of

G. K. Chesterton

English author and Christian apologist

1874–1936

94 quotes, most often on Christianity, God and Truth & Lies. Part of the Writers collection.

‘My country, right or wrong’ is a thing that no patriot would think of saying, except in a desperate case. It is like saying, ‘My mother, drunk or sober’.
The Defendant (1901), “A Defence of Patriotism”
- Patriotism
The first two facts which a healthy boy or girl feels about sex are these: first that it is beautiful and then that it is dangerous.
- Sex
The Declaration of Independence dogmatically bases all rights on the fact that God created all men equal; and it is right; for if they were not created equal, they were certainly evolved unequal. There is no basis for democracy except in a dogma about the divine origin of man.
What I Saw In America
A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.
Heretics (1905)
- Writing
The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.
- War & Peace
The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.
What’s Wrong With The World (1910), The Unfinished Temple
- Christianity
I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.
Often credited to Gautama Buddha
- Motivation & Goals
Children are innocent and love justice, while most adults are wicked and prefer mercy.
- Children
- Forgiveness
You can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it.
In The Daily News (25 February 1905)
- Truth & Lies
The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.
In The Illustrated London News (16 July 1910)
- Christianity
It is largely because the free-thinkers, as a school, have hardly made up their minds whether they want to be more optimist or more pessimist than Christianity that their small but sincere movement has failed. For the duel is deadly; and any agnostic who wishes to be anything more than a Nihilist must sympathize with one version of nature or the other.
The Victorian Age in Literature (1913), Ch. II: The Great Victorian Novelists (p. 73)
- Atheism
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.
A Short History of England (1917)
- Freedom
- Morality
All science, even the divine science, is a sublime detective story. Only it is not set to detect why a man is dead; but the darker secret of why he is alive.
- God
- Science
If my children wake up on Christmas morning and have someone to thank for putting candy in their stocking, have I no one to thank for putting two feet in mine?
- God
It has been often said, very truly, that religion is the thing that makes the ordinary man feel extraordinary; it is an equally important truth that religion is the thing that makes the extraordinary man feel ordinary.
Charles Dickens (1906), Ch 1: “The Dickens Period”
- Religion

Often credited to G. K. Chesterton

Quotes often credited to G. K. Chesterton that were said or written by someone else.

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