This quotation actually comes from page 211 of Emile Cammaerts' book The Laughing Prophets (1937) in which he quotes Chesterton as having Father Brown say (in 'The Oracle of the Dog' from 1923): 'It's the first effect of not believing in God that you lose your common sense.' Cammaerts then interposes his own analysis between further quotes from Father Brown: ''It's drowning all your old rationalism and scepticism, it's coming in like a sea; and the name of it is superstition.' The first effect of not believing in God is to believe in anything: 'And a dog is an omen and a cat is a mystery.'' Note that the remark about believing in anything is outside quotes - it is from Cammaerts. The American Chesterton Society has explained the origin of the phrase.
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- The quote attribution is complex and partly from Cammaerts not Chesterton.
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- The quote comes from a book quoting Chesterton.
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- Verify quote sources before accepting them.
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Another view
It confuses the original author with the interpreter.
More from Gilbert Keith Chesterton
When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing - they believe in anything.
Permalink to quote #192 A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things but cannot receive great ones.
Permalink to quote #194 Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.
Permalink to quote #191
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