Quotes by G. K Chesterton that apply today.
“Once abolish the God, and the government becomes the God." - G. K. Chesterton
War is not 'the best way of settling differences; it is the only way of preventing their being settled for you. - G. K. Chesterton
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." - G. K. Chesterton
Men are ruled, at this minute by the clock, by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern." - G. K. Chesterton
He is a very shallow critic who cannot see an eternal rebel in the heart of a conservative. - G. K. Chesterton
There are those who hate Christianity and call their hatred an all-embracing love for all religions. - G. K. Chesterton
"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." - G. K. Chesterton
"These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own." - G. K. Chesterton
"Men do not differ much about what things they will call evils; they differ enormously about what evils they will call excusable." - G. K. Chesterton
"Idolatry is committed, not merely by setting up false gods, but also by setting up false devils; by making men afraid of war or alcohol, or economic law, when they should be afraid of spiritual corruption and cowardice." - G. K. Chesterton
"The world will very soon be divided, unless I am mistaken, into those who still go on explaining our success, and those somewhat more intelligent who are trying to explain our failure." - G. K. Chesterton
"[No society can survive the socialist] fallacy that there is an absolutely unlimited number of inspired officials and an absolutely unlimited amount of money to pay them." - G. K. Chesterton The Debate with Bertrand Russell, BBC Magazine, 11/27/35
Separation of Church and State "Religious liberty might be supposed to mean that everybody is free to discuss religion. In practice it means that hardly anybody is allowed to mention it." - Autobiography, 1937