G. K. Chesterton
@gkchesterton.bsky.social
Writer of works of philosophy, Christian apologetics, history, art and literary criticism, poetry, travelogues, novels, plays, detective stories, not to mention thousands of essays.
I am a vegetarian... between meals. From breakfast to lunch, not a leg of mutton crosses my lips. During all that time I am an earnest and active nutarian, munching away and laying up stores of health.
January 16, 2025 at 12:33 PM
I am a vegetarian... between meals. From breakfast to lunch, not a leg of mutton crosses my lips. During all that time I am an earnest and active nutarian, munching away and laying up stores of health.
There are only two ways of governing human beings: the first is called dogmatism and the second despotism. But despotism is easier. For if men are ruled by a king they can forget him; if they are ruled by a creed they have to remember it.
January 15, 2025 at 10:58 PM
There are only two ways of governing human beings: the first is called dogmatism and the second despotism. But despotism is easier. For if men are ruled by a king they can forget him; if they are ruled by a creed they have to remember it.
Pleasure in the beautiful is a sacred thing.
January 15, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Pleasure in the beautiful is a sacred thing.
A work of art is like a prayer; no sin must be kept back in it, or it becomes false.
January 14, 2025 at 1:33 PM
A work of art is like a prayer; no sin must be kept back in it, or it becomes false.
In our time we find a great deal of religion in art.
In former ages we found a great deal of art in religion.
Religion was the orthodoxy of those days: art has become almost the only orthodoxy of these.
In former ages we found a great deal of art in religion.
Religion was the orthodoxy of those days: art has become almost the only orthodoxy of these.
January 14, 2025 at 12:08 AM
In our time we find a great deal of religion in art.
In former ages we found a great deal of art in religion.
Religion was the orthodoxy of those days: art has become almost the only orthodoxy of these.
In former ages we found a great deal of art in religion.
Religion was the orthodoxy of those days: art has become almost the only orthodoxy of these.
Any number of philosophies will repeat the platitudes of Christianity.
But it is the ancient Church that can again startle the world with the paradoxes of Christianity.
But it is the ancient Church that can again startle the world with the paradoxes of Christianity.
January 13, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Any number of philosophies will repeat the platitudes of Christianity.
But it is the ancient Church that can again startle the world with the paradoxes of Christianity.
But it is the ancient Church that can again startle the world with the paradoxes of Christianity.
I could never see why a man who is not free to open his mouth to drink should be free to open it to talk. Talking does far more direct harm to other people.
January 10, 2025 at 6:22 PM
I could never see why a man who is not free to open his mouth to drink should be free to open it to talk. Talking does far more direct harm to other people.
Great joy has in it the sense of immortality: the triumphant moments of our life may have been only moments, but they were moments of eternity.
January 10, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Great joy has in it the sense of immortality: the triumphant moments of our life may have been only moments, but they were moments of eternity.
All skepticism is like seasickness...
If you cannot enjoy the universe, it is better to throw it up; but it will leave you weak and sensitive and any spirit that you touch will infallibly fly to your head.
If you cannot enjoy the universe, it is better to throw it up; but it will leave you weak and sensitive and any spirit that you touch will infallibly fly to your head.
January 9, 2025 at 4:29 PM
All skepticism is like seasickness...
If you cannot enjoy the universe, it is better to throw it up; but it will leave you weak and sensitive and any spirit that you touch will infallibly fly to your head.
If you cannot enjoy the universe, it is better to throw it up; but it will leave you weak and sensitive and any spirit that you touch will infallibly fly to your head.
Drink because you are happy, but never because you are miserable.
January 9, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Drink because you are happy, but never because you are miserable.
Half our human effort is wasted on mere transit, transport, and exchange.
The commonwealth is a clearinghouse of cases we never open and presents we never enjoy.
The commonwealth is a clearinghouse of cases we never open and presents we never enjoy.
January 7, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Half our human effort is wasted on mere transit, transport, and exchange.
The commonwealth is a clearinghouse of cases we never open and presents we never enjoy.
The commonwealth is a clearinghouse of cases we never open and presents we never enjoy.
It seems to me this pleasure-mad generation has lost the art of enjoyment.
January 7, 2025 at 3:12 AM
It seems to me this pleasure-mad generation has lost the art of enjoyment.
It is vain to learn to enjoy sport, or to enjoy art, or to enjoy festivity, if we have not learned the fundamental function—how to enjoy enjoyment.
January 6, 2025 at 4:34 PM
It is vain to learn to enjoy sport, or to enjoy art, or to enjoy festivity, if we have not learned the fundamental function—how to enjoy enjoyment.
The very definition of hell must be energy without joy.
January 6, 2025 at 1:11 PM
The very definition of hell must be energy without joy.
Our particular corner of Christendom can now be taught the history of every civilisation except its own.
January 5, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Our particular corner of Christendom can now be taught the history of every civilisation except its own.
There certainly are great important matters upon which many of the great and important religions agree.
But the first difficulty is that these are sometimes the very things with which the unifiers of religions disagree.
But the first difficulty is that these are sometimes the very things with which the unifiers of religions disagree.
January 5, 2025 at 1:14 PM
There certainly are great important matters upon which many of the great and important religions agree.
But the first difficulty is that these are sometimes the very things with which the unifiers of religions disagree.
But the first difficulty is that these are sometimes the very things with which the unifiers of religions disagree.
While we are seeing around us a degree of licence that can rightly be called pagan, we are also seeing a destruction of liberty that is rightly called Puritan.
What is bottled up in one place breaks out in another place; only it is the wrong place instead of the right place.
What is bottled up in one place breaks out in another place; only it is the wrong place instead of the right place.
January 4, 2025 at 4:14 PM
While we are seeing around us a degree of licence that can rightly be called pagan, we are also seeing a destruction of liberty that is rightly called Puritan.
What is bottled up in one place breaks out in another place; only it is the wrong place instead of the right place.
What is bottled up in one place breaks out in another place; only it is the wrong place instead of the right place.
Sociology really does mean waiting in a wild place for something that won't happen.
January 4, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Sociology really does mean waiting in a wild place for something that won't happen.
It is a moral duty to listen to reason, but it is not a moral duty to listen to unreason.
January 3, 2025 at 1:45 PM
It is a moral duty to listen to reason, but it is not a moral duty to listen to unreason.
It takes a real politician to say that politics don't matter.
January 2, 2025 at 5:45 PM
It takes a real politician to say that politics don't matter.
I do not believe that a nation dies save by suicide. To the very last every problem is a problem of will; and if we will we can be whole. But it involves facing our own failures as well as counting our successes.
January 2, 2025 at 1:04 PM
I do not believe that a nation dies save by suicide. To the very last every problem is a problem of will; and if we will we can be whole. But it involves facing our own failures as well as counting our successes.
We have seen the end of the age of Reason; and that we live in the age of Suggestion.
Perhaps for the first time, the degradation of Man has been openly declared; in a theory that he can be persuaded without being convinced.
Perhaps for the first time, the degradation of Man has been openly declared; in a theory that he can be persuaded without being convinced.
January 1, 2025 at 8:54 PM
We have seen the end of the age of Reason; and that we live in the age of Suggestion.
Perhaps for the first time, the degradation of Man has been openly declared; in a theory that he can be persuaded without being convinced.
Perhaps for the first time, the degradation of Man has been openly declared; in a theory that he can be persuaded without being convinced.
The Church does not crush any man's conscience. It is the man who crushes his conscience and then finds out that it was right, when he has almost forgotten that he had one.
January 1, 2025 at 3:00 PM
The Church does not crush any man's conscience. It is the man who crushes his conscience and then finds out that it was right, when he has almost forgotten that he had one.
Religion is interested not in whether a man is happy, but whether he is still alive, whether he can still react in a normal way to new things—to blink in a blinding light or laugh when tickled.
That is the best of Christmas—it is a startling and disturbing happiness; an uncomfortable comfort.
That is the best of Christmas—it is a startling and disturbing happiness; an uncomfortable comfort.
December 24, 2024 at 9:07 PM
Religion is interested not in whether a man is happy, but whether he is still alive, whether he can still react in a normal way to new things—to blink in a blinding light or laugh when tickled.
That is the best of Christmas—it is a startling and disturbing happiness; an uncomfortable comfort.
That is the best of Christmas—it is a startling and disturbing happiness; an uncomfortable comfort.
The idea of embodying goodwill—that is, of putting it into a body—is the huge and primal idea of the Incarnation. A gift of God that can be seen and touched is the whole point of the epigram of the creed. Christ Himself was a Christmas present.
December 21, 2024 at 1:12 PM
The idea of embodying goodwill—that is, of putting it into a body—is the huge and primal idea of the Incarnation. A gift of God that can be seen and touched is the whole point of the epigram of the creed. Christ Himself was a Christmas present.