Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes About Morality

• 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.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Spiritual, War, Men

• Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Art, Funny Friend, Drawing

  "The Golden Book" Magazine, Vol. 7, (p. 323), 1928.

• All science, even the divine science, is a sublime detective story. Only it is not set to detect why a man is dead; but the darker secret of why he is alive.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Men, Sublime, Secret

• Civilization has run on ahead of the soul of man, and is producing faster than he can think and give thanks.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Running, Men, Thinking

• If there is one thing worse than the modern weakening of major morals, it is the modern strengthening of minor morals.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Morality, Modern, Strengthening

  "By What Definition is Gavin Newsom’s Sex Life 'Breaking News'?" by Arianna Huffington, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 1, 2007.

• There'd be a lot less scandal if people didn't idealize sin and pose as sinners.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  People, Scandal, Morality

• Truth is sacred; and if you tell the truth too often nobody will believe it.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Believe, Sacred, Morality

  In the Illustrated London News, 24 February 1906.

• If we want to give poor people soap we must set out deliberately to give them luxuries. If we will not make them rich enough to be clean, then empathically we must do what we did with the saints. We must reverence them for being dirty.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Dirty, Luxury, People

• 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.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Intelligent, Trying, Goes On

• All men thirst to confess their crimes more than tired beasts thirst for water; but they naturally object to confessing them while other people, who have also committed the same crimes, sit by and laugh at them.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Tired, Men, Water

• What we call emancipation is always and of necessity simply the free choice of the soul between one set of limitations and another.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Choices, Soul, Morality

• There are some desires that are not desirable.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Desire, Morality, Desirable

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.92, Simon and Schuster

• I say that a man must be certain of his morality for the simple reason that he has to suffer for it.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Simple, Men, Suffering

• Modern broad-mindedness benefits the rich; and benefits nobody else.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Benefits, Morality, Rich

• It's not that we don't have enough scoundrels to curse; it's that we don't have enough good men to curse them.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Men, Catholic, Good Man

• To the humble man, and to the humble man alone, the sun is really a sun; to the humble man, and to the humble man alone, the sea is really a sea.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Humble, Men, Sea

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.188, Simon and Schuster

• It is the main earthly business of a human being to make his home, and the immediate surroundings of his home, as symbolic and significant to his own imagination as he can.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Business, Home, Imagination

• The whole truth is generally the ally of virtue; a half-truth is always the ally of some vice.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Catholic, Half, Vices

• The voice of the special rebels and prophets, recommending discontent, should, as I have said, sound now and then suddenly, like a trumpet. But the voices of the saints and sages, recommending contentment, should sound unceasingly, like the sea.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Sea, Voice, Special

• To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Orthodoxy, Morality, Action

  "A short history of England". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, 1917.

• It is shorter to state the things forbidden than the things permitted; precisely because most things are permitted and only a few things forbidden.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Morality, States, Forbidden

• These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Christian, Religion, Morality

  "The Illustrated London News" Magazine, August 11, 1928.

• We are justified in enforcing good morals, for they belong to all mankind; but we are not justified in enforcing good manners, for good manners always mean our own manners.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Mean, Morality, Justified

• Morality did not begin by one man saying to another, "I will not hit you if you do not hit me"; there is no trace of such a transaction. There IS a trace of both men having said, "We must not hit each other in the holy place.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Men, Holy Places, Morality

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.49, Simon and Schuster

• A strange fanaticism fills our time: the fanatical hatred of morality, especially of Christian morality.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Christian, Hatred, Morality

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