A blog dedicated to providing quotes by and posts relating to one of the most influential (and quotable!) authors of the twentieth century, G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936). If you do not know much about GKC, I suggest visiting the webpage of the American Chesterton Society as well as this wonderful Chesterton Facebook Page by a fellow Chestertonian

I also have created a list detailing examples of the influence of Chesterton if you are interested, that I work on from time to time.

(Moreover, for a list of short GKC quotes, I have created one here, citing the sources)

"...Stevenson had found that the secret of life lies in laughter and humility."

-Heretics (1905)
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Tuesday, December 8, 2015

"...to leave a child's mind empty does not mean that it will remain empty; it only means that it will be filled with silly things."

We have most of us realised, I suppose, that the only thing irritating about sceptisim is that it does not exist. A really open mind (which, as Mr. Chamberlain truly says, means an empty mind) would be a very charming thing; it is a very charming thing as it exists in babies in long clothes. But the trouble is that to leave a child's mind empty does not mean that it will remain empty; it only means that it will be filled with silly things. He will not be a sceptic; he will merely be a fanatic for fifth rate causes. Where the human mind is not fed with any doctrine at all, it is simply at the mercy of the first mean sophistry or two-penny cynical generalisation that it may hear from a fast schoolfellow or vulgar employer. Where there is nothing there is Satan. Where there is no concern for moral or religious offices there is ether a fussy and tyrannical concern for cuffs and collars or (what is almost worse) a fussy and tyrannical concern for Liberty ties and Jaeger shirts and all the heathen horrors of art and hygiene. When you break the big laws you do not get liberty: you do not even get anarchy. You get the small laws.
-July 29, 1905, Daily News

4 comments:

Champernoon said...

Hello Mike,
I'm currently working on an anthology of Chesterton's writing on family, and I really need the article here quoted. Alas, I cannot find it anywhere and I don't have access to the original Daily News issue. Is there an anthology I missed where it appears ? Thanks a lot.

Mike said...

All of Chesterton's Daily News articles have been publisher in a set of volumes under the title Chesterton at the Daily News.

Mike said...

I mean G.K. Chesterton at the Daily News

Anonymous said...

Found it ! Thank you very much.