Please read the conditions for use before
using any quotes from this site.
Christian Quotes by Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton Index
October 1, 2001
Pessimism is not in being tired of evil but in being tired of good. Despair does not lie in being weary of suffering but in being weary of joy.
Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton
American Chesterton Society
Jan 29, 2002
The Bible tells us to love our neighbours, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.
Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton
American Chesterton Society
September 1, 2002
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 Keith G. K. Chesterton
American Chesterton Society
November 9, 2002
The truth is, of course, that the curtness of the Ten Commandments is an evidence, not of the gloom and narrowness of a religion, but, on the contrary, of its liberality and humanity. It is shorter to state the things forbidden than the things permitted: precisely because most things are permitted, and only a few things are forbidden.
Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton
American Chesterton Society
January 21, 2003
True contentment is a real, even an active virtue - not only affirmative but creative. It is the power of getting out of any situation all there is in it.
Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton
American Chesterton Society
November 21, 2003
These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own.
Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton
American Chesterton Society
July 16, 2004
A child kicks its legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, Do it again; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough... It is possible that God says every morning, Do it again, to the sun; and every evening, Do it again, to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike: it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.
Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton
American Chesterton Society
October 1, 2004
Men do not differ much about what things they call evils; they differ enormously about what evils they will call excusable.
Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton
American Chesterton Society
October 24, 2004
Nature is our sister, not our mother; she too has fallen.
Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton
American Chesterton Society
March 3, 2005
Tolerance is the virtue of those who don't believe anything.
Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton
American Chesterton Society
One sees great things from the valley, only small things from the peak.
Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton
American Chesterton Society
December 4, 2005
True contentment is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it.
Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton
American Chesterton Society
December 25, 2005
The Christ-child lay on Mary's lap,
His hair was like a light.
(Oh weary, weary was the world,
But here is all alright.)
Ah, dearest Jesus, Holy Child,
Make thee bed, soft, undefiled
Within my heart, that it may be
A quiet chamber, kept for Thee.
My heart for very joy does leap
My lips no more can silence keep,
I must sing with joyful tongue
That sweetest ancient cradle song.
Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton
American Chesterton Society
July 8, 2006
There are those who hate Christianity and call their hatred an all-embracing love for all religions.
Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton
American Chesterton Society
October 21, 2006
I believe in getting into hot water; it keeps you clean.
Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton
American Chesterton Society
July 11, 2007
Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.
Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton
American Chesterton Society
October 1, 2007
It is often supposed that when people stop believing in God, they believe in nothing. Alas, it is worse than that. When they stop believing in God, they believe in anything.
Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton
American Chesterton Society
December 31, 2007
The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective. Unless a man starts on the strange assumption that he has never existed before, it is quite certain that he will never exist afterwards. Unless a man be born again, he shall by no means enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton
American Chesterton Society
July 22, 2008
Love means to love that which is unlovable, or it is no virtue at all; forgiving means to pardon that which is unpardonable, or it is no virtue at all.
Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton
American Chesterton Society
May 3, 2010
An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.
Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton
American Chesterton Society
September 2, 2011
It is rather ridiculous to ask a man just about to be boiled in a pot and eaten, at a purely religious feast, why he does not regard all religions as equally friendly and fraternal.
Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton
American Chesterton Society
January 6, 2012
Every man has a different philosophy; this is my philosophy and it suits me" - the habit of saying this is mere weak mindedness. A cosmic philosophy is not constructed to fit a man; a cosmic philosophy is constructed to fit a cosmos. A man can no more possess a private religion than he can possess a private sun and moon.
Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton
American Chesterton Society
March 15, 2012
The reason angels can fly is that they take themselves very lightly.
Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton
American Chesterton Society
|Use our Search Engine to search via keyword or author|
