But they none of them create the psychological conditions in which I first saw, or desired to see, the flower.
Any one of the strange laws we suffer is a compromise between a fad and a vested interest.
Forms of expression always appear turgid to those who do not share the emotions they represent.
Marriage halves our griefs, doubles our joys, and quadruples our expenses.
Just the other day in the Underground I enjoyed the pleasure of offering my seat to three ladies.
Catholic doctrine and discipline may be walls; but they are the walls of a playground.
Adventure is the champagne of life.
Gluttony is a great fault; but we do not necessarily dislike a glutton. We only dislike the glutton when he becomes a gourmet-that is, we only dislike him when he not only wants the best for himself, but knows what is best for other people.
Virtue is not the absence of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate thing, like pain or a particular smell.
The more I considered Christianity, the more I found that while it had established a rule and order, the chief aim of that order was to give room for good things to run wild.
Time and again, the Faith has to all appearances gone to the dogs. But each time, it was the dog that died.
Whatever else may be said of man, this one thing is clear: He is not what he is capable of being.
A crown of roses is also a crown of thorns.
ONCE remove the old arena of theological quarrels, and you will throw open the whole world to the most horrible, the most hopeless, the most endless, the most truly interminable quarrels; the untheological quarrels.
Hell is God’s great compliment to the reality of human freedom and the dignity of human choice.
The difficulty of explaining ‘why I am a Catholic’ is that there are ten thousand reasons all amounting to one reason: that Catholicism is true.
All men are ordinary men; the extraordinary men are those who know it.
We are Christians and Catholics not because we worship a key, but because we have passed a door; and felt the wind that is the trumpet of liberty blow over the land of the living.
Every time a man knocks on a brothel door, he is really knocking for God.
Men rush towards complexity, but they yearn towards simplicity. They try to be kings; but they dream of being shepherds.