G. K. Chesterton

Virtue is not the absense of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate thing, read more

Virtue is not the absense of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate thing, like pain or a particular smell.

Continuing a series on God and the human condition: That Jones shall worship the "god within him" turns out read more

Continuing a series on God and the human condition: That Jones shall worship the "god within him" turns out ultimately to mean that Jones shall worship Jones. Let Jones worship the sun or moon -- anything rather than the Inner Light; let Jones worship cats or crocodiles, if he can find any in his street, but not the god within. Christianity came into the world firstly in order to assert with violence that a man had not only to look inwards, but to look outwards, to behold with astonishment and enthusiasm a divine company and a divine captain. The only fun of being a Christian was that a man was not left alone with the Inner Light, but definitely recognized an outer light, fair as the sun, clear as the moon, terrible as an army with banners.

The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should read more

The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul.

Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers read more

Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers is another. - "On the Cryptic and the Elliptic", 1908.

Certain new theologians dispute original sin, which is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved. Some read more

Certain new theologians dispute original sin, which is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved. Some followers of the Rev. R. J. Campbell, in their almost too fastidious spirituality, admit divine sinlessness, which they cannnot see even in their dreams. But they essentially deny human sin, which they can see in the street. The strongest saints and the strongest sceptics alike took positive evil as the starting-point of their argument. If it be true (as it certainly is) that a man can feel exquisite happiness in skinning a cat, then the religious philosopher can only draw one of two deductions. He must either deny the existence of God, as all atheists do; or he must deny the present union between God and Man, as all Christians do. The new theologians seem to think it a highly rationalistic solution to deny the cat.