Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes About Animals

• Man is an exception, whatever else he is. If he is not the image of God, then he is a disease of the dust. If it is not true that a divine being fell, then we can only say that one of the animals went entirely off its head.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  God, Animal, Men

• Wherever there is animal worship, there is human sacrifice.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Sacrifice, Animal, Worship

• No animal ever invented anything as bad as drunkenness - or so good as drink.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Drinking, Beer, Animal

  All Things Considered (1908) "Wine When it is Red"

• Man is always something worse or something better than an animal; and a mere argument from animal perfection never touches him at all. Thus, in sex no animal is either chivalrous or obscene. And thus no animal invented anything so bad as drunkeness - or so good as drink.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Sex, Animal, Men

• Leaving the complications of the human breakfast-table out of account, in an elemental sense, the egg only exists to produce the chicken. But the chicken does not exist only in order to produce another egg. He may also exist to amuse himself, to praise God, and even to suggest ideas to a French dramatist. Being a conscious life, he is, or may be, valuable in himself.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Animal, Order, Eggs

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.252, Simon and Schuster

• We talk of wild animals, but the wildest animal is man.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Animal, Men, Wild Animal

• Men feel that cruelty to the poor is a kind of cruelty to animals. They never feel that it is an injustice to equals; nay it is treachery to comrades.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Men, Animal, Kind

• A thing may be too sad to be believed or too wicked to be believed or too good to be believed; but it cannot be too absurd to be believed in this planet of frogs and elephants, of crocodiles and cuttle-fish.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Animal, Elephants, Wicked

• We talk of wild animals but man is the only wild animal. It is man that has broken out. All other animals are tame animals; following the rugged respectability of the tribe or type.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Animal, Men, Broken

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.109, Simon and Schuster

• Do not be proud of the fact that your grandmother was shocked at something which your are accustomed to seeing or hearing without being shocked. ... It may be that your grandmother was an extremely lively and vital animal and that you are a paralytic.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Grandmother, Animal, May

• Mankind is not a tribe of animals to which we owe compassion. Mankind is a club to which we owe our subscription.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Animal, Compassion, Clubs

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