What G. K. Chesterton thinks about democracy
English writer and Christian apologist (1874 to 1936); author of Orthodoxy.
G. K. Chesterton did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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4 dated positions, c. 1905 to c. 1910, in their own words. Our reading of what G. K. Chesterton has said — not written or endorsed by them.
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Our readingProperty is the ordinary person’s art: everyone should have something to shape as their own
Their wordsProperty is merely the art of the democracy. It means that every man should have something that he can shape in his own image, as he is shaped in the image of heaven.
↗What's Wrong with the World (1910)gutenberg.org All 19 from this book
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Their wordsPerhaps the truth can be put most pointedly thus: that democracy has one real enemy, and that is civilization.
↗What's Wrong with the World (1910)gutenberg.org All 19 from this book
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Our readingThe most important things, like marriage, child-rearing and law, must be left to ordinary people
Their wordsIn short, the democratic faith is this: that the most terribly important things must be left to ordinary men themselves—the mating of the sexes, the rearing of the young, the laws of the state. This is democracy; and in this I have always believed.
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Their wordsDemocracy is not founded on pity for the common man; democracy is founded on reverence for the common man, or, if you will, even on fear of him.