Bad is so bad, that we cannot but think good an accident; good is so good, that we feel certain that evil could be explained.
But it is clear that no political activity can be encouraged by saying that progress is natural and inevitable; that is not a reason for being active, but rather a reason for being lazy.
I always like a dog so long as he isn't spelled backward.
You cannot love a thing without wanting to fight for it. You cannot fight without something to fight for. To love a thing without wishing to fight for it is not love at all; it is lust. It may be an a...
What we need is not the cold acceptance of the world as a compromise,but some way in which we can heartily hate and heartily love it. We do not want joy and anger to neutralize each other and produce...
Therefore I see no wrong in riding with the Nightmare to-night; she whinnies to me from the rocking tree-tops and the roaring wind; I will catch her and ride her through the awful air. Woods and weeds...
The suburb of Saffron Park lay on the sunset side of London, as red and ragged as a cloud of sunset. It was built of a bright brick throughout; its sky-line was fantastic, and even its ground plan was...
The secret of life lies in laughter and humility.
The principle is this: that in everything worth having, even in every pleasure, there is a point of pain and tedium that must be survived, so that the pleasure may revive and endure. The joy of battle...
The joke is generally in the oddest way the truth and yet not the fact.
The devil takes us to the top of an exceeding high mountain and makes us dizzy; but God lets us look at the mountain.
The boldest plans for the future invoke the authority of the past; and that even a revolutionary seeks to satisfy himself that he is also a reactionary.
The Christian optimism is based on the fact that we do not fit in to the world.
Take away the supernatural, and what remains is the unnatural.
She was not in the least afraid of loneliness, because she was not afraid of devils. I think they were afraid of her.
Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all.
People like frequent laughter, answered Father Brown, but I don't think they like a permanent smile. Cheerfulness without humour is a very trying thing.
Man is not merely an evolution but rather a revolution.
In the lower classes the school master does not work for the parent, but against the parent. Modern education meanshanding down the customs of the minority, and rooting out the customs of the majority...
If you consulted your business experiences instead of your ugly individualistic philosophy, you would know that believing in himself is one of the commonest signs of a rotter.