QuotesCosmos
This quotation actually comes from page 211 of Émile Cammaerts' book The Laughing Prophet: The Seven Virtues and G. K. Chesterton (1937) in which he quotes Chesterton as having Father Brown say, in "The Oracle of the Dog" (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 the quotation marks — it is Cammaerts. The correct attribution was reportedly first traced by Pasquale Accardo. It was also credited to Nigel Rees (as cited in First Things, 1997).
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When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing — they believe in anything.

— G. K. Chesterton

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing — they believe in anything." in the context of "This quotation actually comes from page 211 of Émile Cammaerts' book The Laughing Prophet: The Seven Virtues and G. K. Chesterton (1937) in which he quotes Chesterton as having Father Brown say, in "The Oracle of the Dog" (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 the quotation marks — it is Cammaerts. The correct attribution was reportedly first traced by Pasquale Accardo. It was also credited to Nigel Rees (as cited in First Things, 1997)." to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "G. K. Chesterton" (Misattributed) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

Tags

#G. K. Chesterton#believe#believing#anything#nothing#stop#dont#god
G. K. Chesterton

About G. K. Chesterton

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was a British writer whose prolific and diverse output included works of philosophy, ontology, poetry, play writing, journalism, public lecturing and debating, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics (particularly for Catholicism), and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction. He has been called the "prince of paradox".