“To have no philosophy is to have a bad philosophy.”
Harry Lee Poe The Making of C.S. Lewis [quoting a letter around Christmas 1928 to his brother Warren (“Warnie”) in China in which Lewis insisted that the line was original with him].
“It was not the use of science that bothered [C.S.] Lewis but its misuse. The danger lay not with the sciences but with the humanities, which had fallen to pieces after World War I and abandoned their function in preserving the concepts of right, wrong, true, false, and beautiful. Poetry no longer made sense, music no longer had melodies, novels no longer had plots, paintings no longer were pictures, and the vast public ceased to be interested in the arts.”
Harry Lee Poe The Making of C.S. Lewis
“That religion which God requires, and will accept, does not consist in weak, dull, lifeless wishes, raising us but a little above a state of indifference. God in His Word, greatly insists upon it, that we be in good earnest, fervent in spirit, and our hearts vigorously engaged in mercies.”
Jonathan Edwards quoted in Federalist Patriot No. 04-32 August 9, 2004 from Federalist.com.
“‘Like the land of the Brobdingnagians,’ said Turnbull, smiling. ‘Oh, Where is that?’ said MacIan. Turnbull said bitterly, ‘In a book,’ and the silence fell suddenly between them again.”
G.K. Chesterton The Ball and the Cross, as header quotation on David Beresford in Gilbert The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 26 # 4 (March-April 2023)
“There is one thing infinitely more absurd than burning a man for his philosophy. This is the habit of saying that his philosophy does not matter.”
G.K. Chesterton quoted by David Cregg in Gilbert Magazine Vol. 16 #4 (Jan.-Feb,. 2013)
“The universal mark of ‘social reforms’ is the general attempt of the wealthy to get the needy well under their control.”
G.K. Chesterton in Illustrated London News Jan. 25, 1913, quoted in Gilbert The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 26 # 2 (Nov.-Dec. 2022)
“I can never hear of one of those savage or idolatrous faiths without wishing that I belonged to it. When I read of savages worshipping an odd-looking stone, I think what sensible fellows they must be. When I am told of a chieftain who believes he is descended from a shark, I wish sincerely that I could share his delusion. As a matter of intellect and conviction I believe in one religion; but, as a matter of fancy and sympathy I can believe in any number…. I can feel a sympathy for any religion that is a religion.”
G.K. Chesterton in Illustrated London News Oct. 10, 1908, quoted in Gilbert Magazine Vol. 7 # 7 (June 2004)
“If there is not real responsibility for anything, why should we be responsible for either justice or mercy towards murderers?”
G.K. Chesterton in Illustrated London News June 23, 1928, quoted in Gilbert The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 26 # 4 (March-April 2023)