G. K. Chesterton

'My country, right or wrong,' is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. read more

'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.'

You could compile the worst book in the world entirely out of selected passages from the best writes in the read more

You could compile the worst book in the world entirely out of selected passages from the best writes in the world.

Commemoration of Mary Slessor, Missionary in West Africa, 1915 It is vain for bishops and pious bigwigs to discuss read more

Commemoration of Mary Slessor, Missionary in West Africa, 1915 It is vain for bishops and pious bigwigs to discuss what dreadful things will happen if wild skepticism runs its course. It has run its course. It is vain for eloquent atheists to talk of the great truths that will be revealed if once we see free thought begin. We have seen it end. It has no more questions to ask; it has questioned itself. You cannot call up any wilder vision than a city in which men ask themselves if they have any selves. You cannot fancy a more skeptical world than that in which men doubt whether there is a world. It might certainly have reached its bankruptcy more quickly and cleanly if it had not been feebly hampered by the application of indefensible laws of blasphemy or by the absurd pretense that modern England is Christian. But it would have reached the bankruptcy anyhow.

All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But read more

All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.

We are all in the same boat in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.

We are all in the same boat in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.