“Unhappy! of course you'll be unhappy. Who the devil are you that you shouldn't be unhappy, like the mother that bore you?” — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Happiness is a state of the soul; a state in which our natures are full of the wine of an ancient youth,… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Those might not be the very best judges of the relation of religion to happiness who, by their own account, had neither… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“No,' said Gould, with an unusual and convincing gravity; 'I do not believe that being perfectly good in all respects would make… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“If it be true (as it certainly is) that a man can feel exquisite happiness in skinning a cat, then the religious… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The test of all happiness is gratitude; and I felt grateful, though I hardly knew to whom. Children are grateful when Santa… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The man who cannot believe his senses, and the man who cannot believe anything else, are both insane, but their insanity is… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“What we need is not the cold acceptance of the world as a compromise, but some way in which we can heartily… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The perfect happiness of men on the earth (if it ever comes) will not be a flat and solid thing, like the… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“It is not true that we have never been broken. We have been broken upon the wheel. It is not true that… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“I had tried to be happy by telling myself that man is an animal, like any other which sought its meat from… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Naturally, therefore, these people talk about 'a happy time coming'; 'the paradise of the future'; 'mankind freed from the bondage of vice… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“But there is a way of despising the dandelion which is not that of the dreary pessimist, but of the more offensive… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“I never use paradox. The statements I make are wearisome and obvious common sense. I have even been driven to the tedium of reading… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“Nothing, again, could be more prosaic and impenetrable than the domestic energies of Miss Diana Duke. But Innocent had somehow blundered on the discovery… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“The mass of men have been forced to be gay about the little things, but sad about the big ones. Nevertheless (I offer my… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“ask yourself how many people you have met who grumbled at a thing as incurable, and how many who attacked it as curable? How… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children's games from the beginning, and will probably do… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“Internationalism is in any case hostile to democracy….The only purely popular government is local, and founded on local knowledge. The citizens can rule the… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“There was a short railway official travelling up to the terminus, three fairly short market-gardeners picked up two stations afterwards, one very short widow… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“Humility is the mother of giants. One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.” — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“Man, by a blind instinct, knew that if once things were wildly questioned, reason could be questioned first. The authority of priests to absolve,… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“It is idle to talk always of the alternative of reason and faith. Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“But in order that life should be a story or romance to us, it is necessary that a great part of it, at any… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“Buddhism seeks after God with the largest conception it can find, the all-producing and all-absorbing One; Christianity seeks after God with the most elementary… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
“Man is more himself, more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing and grief superficial.” — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share
