When people impute special vices to the Christian Church, they seem entirely to forget that the world (which is the only other thing there is) has these vices much more. The Church has been cruel; but the world has been much more cruel. The Church has plotted; but the world has plotted much more. The Church has been superstitious; but it has never been so superstitious as the world is when left to itself.

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

I would give a woman not more rights, but more privileges. Instead of sending her to seek such freedom as notoriously prevails in banks and factories, I would design specially a house in which she can be free.

The mind that finds its way to wild places is the poet's; but the mind that never finds its way back is the lunatic's.

Classic literature is still something that hangs in the air like a song.

The sort of man who admires Italian art while despising Italian religion is a tourist and a cad.

My brother, Cecil Edward Chesterton, was born when I was about five years old; and, after a brief pause, began to argue. He continued to argue to the end. I am glad to think that through all those years we never stopped arguing; and we never once quarreled. Perhaps the principal objection to a quarrel is that it interrupts an argument.