Quotes

Here are some quotes from Chesterton. Remember that many of his essays can be read at The American Chesterton Society Website at www.chesterton.org

man is always influenced by thought of some kind, his own or somebody else's; that of somebody he trusts or that of somebody he never heard of, thought at first, second or third hand; thought from exploded legends or unverified rumors; but always something with the shadow of a system of values and a reason for preference.

The best that can be said for the skeptic is that he cannot say what he means, and therefore, whatever else he means, he cannot mean what he says….The point is that he cannot really explain what he means; and that is the argument for a better education in philosophy.

The disadvantage of not having it is that a man will turn impatiently even from so simple a truism; and call it metaphysical gibberish. He will then go off and say: "One can't have such things in the twentieth century"; which really is gibberish.

We are always being told that men must no longer be so sharply divided into their different religions. As an immediate step in progress, it is much more urgent that they should be more clearly and more sharply divided into their different philosophies.
- G.K. Chesterton A Revival of Philosophy – Why?

Every argument begins with an infallible dogma, and that infallible dogma can only be disputed by falling back on some other infallible dogma; you can never prove your first statement or it would not be your first.

Much of our chaos about religion and doubt arises from this--that our modern skeptics always begin by telling us what they do not believe. But even in a skeptic we want to know first what he does believe. Before arguing, we want to know what we need not argue about.

All sane men, I say, believe firmly and unalterably in a certain number of things which are unproved and unprovable.

if the youth of the future must not (at present) be taught any religion, it might at least be taught, clearly and firmly, the three or four sanities and certainties of human free thought.
- G.K. Chesterton Philosophy for the Schoolroom