A Catholic is a person who has plucked up courage to face the incredible and inconceivable idea that something else may be wiser than he is.

Drink because you are happy, but never because you are miserable. Never drink when you are wretched without it, or you will be like the grey-faced gin-drinker in the slum; but drink when you would be happy without it, and you will be like the laughing peasant of Italy. Never drink because you need it, for this is rational drinking, and the way to death and hell. But drink because you do not need it, for this is irrational drinking, and the ancient health of the world.

The present condition of fame is merely fashion.

In the glad old days, before the rise of modern morbidities...it used to be thought a disadvantage to be misunderstood.

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

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.

The modern materialists are not permitted to doubt; they are forbidden to believe.