“Nothing is important except the fate of the soul; and literature is only redeemed from an utter triviality ... by the fact… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“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
“I have been asked to explain what I meant by saying that "Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity." I have… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Somewhere embedded in every ordinary book are the five or six words for which really all the rest will be written.” — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“It was the outstanding fact about St. Thomas [Aquinas] that he loved books and lived on books ... When asked for what… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Is literature better, is politics better, for having discarded the moralist and the philosopher?” — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Liberalism has been degraded into liberality. Men have tried to turn "revolutionise" from a transitive to an intransitive verb. The Jacobin could… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“If you want to succeed at whist, either be a good whist-player, or play with marked cards. You may want a book… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“In one sense, at any rate, it is more valuable to read bad literature than good literature. Good literature may tell us… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“They are constantly colonists and emigrants ; they have the name of being at home in every country. But they are in… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The only possible excuse for this book is that it is an answer to a challenge. Even a bad shot is dignified… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“You can find all the new ideas in the old books; only there you will find them balanced, kept in their place,… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“La sua logica è straordinariamente lucida e fredda e invariabilmente lo porta fuori strada. Ma all'improvviso interviene la poesia in lui a… — 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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“Humility is the mother of giants. One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.” — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
