Frequently Asked Questions

  1. Who was the Chesterton's model for the character of Father Brown?
  2. "Angels fly because they take themselves lightly."
  3. "When a man stops believing in God, he doesn't believe in nothing, he believes in anything."
  4. "A thing worth doing is worth doing badly."
  5. "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried."
  6. "Tradition is the democracy of the dead."
  7. "Saying 'My country, right or wrong,' is like saying 'My mother, drunk or sober.'"
  8. "Sometimes a thing is too big to be seen..."
  9. "When you break the big laws . . . you get the small laws."
  10. "Tolerance is the attitude of those who do not believe in anything."
  11. "We all feel the riddle of the earth. . . The mystery of life is the plainest part of it."
  12. Chesterton on home schooling
  13. Chesterton on self-defense
  14. Chesterton's famous debate with Clarence Darrow
  15. Origin of "3 Acres and a cow"
  16. "What’s wrong with the world today?" "I am."
  17. "The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is ..."
  18. Where are the Chesterton papers?
  19. "Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason why it was put up."
  20. "All their wars are merry and all their songs are sad."
  21. "Heaven is a playground."
  22. The line from the movie "Peter’s Friends" about being dropped down a chimney.
  23. Life from other planets
  24. What did Chesterton say about Birth Control?
  25. "America is a nation with the soul of a church"
  26. Chesterton's marriage proposal?

Quotations which might seem to be from Chesterton, but aren’t.

  • "If a man is not a socialist by the time he’s 20, he has no heart. If he’s still a socialist when he’s 40, he has no mind."

    • It’s not from Chesterton. It’s not from Churchill. It’s not from Wendell Wilkie. But we don’t know who it’s from.

  • "A man knocking on the door of a brothel is knocking for God."

    • Variously ascribed to Chesterton, St. Francis, and St. Augustine, we have discovered that the only documented source of this quotation is the book The World, The Flesh, and Father Smith by Bruce Marshall (1945) And the quote is really: ". . .the young man who rings the bell at the brothel is unconsciously looking for God." (p. 108)

    (Our thanks to John Carrigan for providing this information.)

  • "A woman uses her intelligence to find reasons to support her intuition."

    • This quotation was attributed to Chesterton on the television show, "Northern Exposure". However, it is not by Chesterton, but by the late French Playwright, Jacques Duval. Unfortunately, we do not have a citation. If anyone knows it, please let us know.

  • "A small man will cast a long shadow at sunset."

    • The variation of this quotation is "When a small man casts a long shadow darkness is near." We don’t have a source but we have this from the Forward to The Wit and Wisdom of Spiro T. Agnew by David Dinnerstein (1969): " . . . to paraphrase Nathaniel Lee, that when small men cast large shadows, it’s a sure sign that the sun is setting." Lee (1649-1692) was an English playwright.

    (Thanks to Dan Bloch for providing this citation.)

    Quotations which might still be by Chesterton, but we still haven’t found them:

  • "The Catholic Church is like a thick steak, a glass of red wine, and a good cigar."
  • (along the same lines) Chesterton supposedly said what drew him to the Faith was the fact that "the pipe, the pint, and the cross could all fit together" within the worldview of Catholic sensibility.

    (Best guess so far is that they’re by Belloc, but we have no citations)
    		•

    The American Chesterton Society 4117 Pebblebrook Circle, Minn, MN 55437


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