“People wonder why the novel is the most popular form of literature; people wonder why it is read more than books of… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it; if you could really look at other… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“A man cut off by the sea may save his life if he will risk it on the precipice. He can only… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“It is not only possible to say a great deal in praise of play; it is really possible to say the highest… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Until we realize that things might not be, we cannot realize that things are. Until we see the background of darkness, we… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die.… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Let us, at least, dig and seek till we have discovered our own opinions. The dogmas we really hold are far more… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Take the case of courage. No quality has ever so much addled the brains and tangled the definitions of merely rational sages.… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“We say that the most dangerous criminal now is the entirely lawless modern philosopher. Compared to him, burglars and bigamists are essentially… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“But in order that life should be a story or romance to us, it is necessary that a great part of it,… — 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
