Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.

In the modern conflict between the Smile and the Laugh, I am all in favor of laughing. The recent stage of culture and criticism might very well be summed up as the men who smile criticizing the men who laugh.

The men of the clique live together because they have the same kind of soul, and their narrowness is a narrowness of spiritual coherence and contentment, like that which exists in hell . . .

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.

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

Buddhism is not a creed, it is a doubt.

In matters of truth the fact that you don't want to publish something is, nine times out of ten, a proof that you ought to publish it.