QUESTION: I remember reading somewhere that John F. Kennedy quoted Chesterton as saying something about not taking a fence down until you know the reason why it was put it up. I think the idea was if someone says they don’t understand why something is the way it is and wants to destroy or change it, don’t let them. Any help?

ANSWER: Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations says that the quotation, “Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason why it was put up,” was ascribed to Chesterton by John F. Kennedy in a 1945 notebook. (Bartlett is not a very good source for Chesterton quotations, by the way: a pitifully small selection, and citations like this one, that reflect zero research. But then, that’s why we’re here!)

The quotation you’re looking for is from Chesterton’s 1929 book, The Thing, in the chapter entitled, “The Drift from Domesticity”: