Tradition does not mean a dead town; it does not mean that the living are dead but that the dead are alive.… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Every great literature has always been allegorical - allegorical of some view of the whole universe. The 'Iliad' is only great because… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Adventure is the champagne of life, but I prefer my champagne and my adventures dry. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Life is not an illogicality; yet it is a trap for logicians. It looks just a little more mathematical and regular than… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
The miser is the man who starves himself and everybody else, in order to worship wealth in its dead form, as distinct… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Life is serious all the time, but living cannot be. You may have all the solemnity you wish in your neckties, but… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Busy editors cannot be expected to put on their posters, "Mr. Wilkinson Still Safe," or "Mr. Jones, of Worthing, Not Dead Yet."… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
When a person has found something which he prefers to life itself, he for the first time has begun to live. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Every one of the great revolutionists, from Isaiah to Shelley, have been optimists. They have been indignant, not about the badness of… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
If I can put one touch of rosy sunset into the life of any man or woman, I shall feel that I… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
At the back of our brains is a blaze of astonishment at our own existence. The object of the artistic and spiritual… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Some of the most frantic lies on the face of life are told with modesty and restraint; for the simple reason that… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
A great curse has fallen upon modern life with the discovery of the vastness of the word Education. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
In real life the people who are most bigoted are the people who have no convictions at all. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
The most important fact about the subject of education is that there is no such thing. Education is not a subject and… — Gilbert 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… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Not only is suicide a sin, it is the sin. It is the ultimate and absolute evil, the refusal to take an… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
At any innocent tea-table we may easily hear a man say, "Life is not worth living." We regard it as we regard… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
The true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
The aim of life is appreciation; there is no sense in not appreciating things; and there is no sense in having more… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
People accuse journalism of being too personal; but to me it has always seemed far too impersonal. It is charged with tearing… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
There must be some good in the life of battle, for so many good men have enjoyed being soldiers. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
The aim of good prose words is to mean what they say. The aim of good poetical words is to mean what they do… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Youth is always too serious, and just now it is too serious about frivolity. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Tradition does not mean a dead town; it does not mean that the living are dead but that the dead are alive. It means… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
It is shorter to state the things forbidden than the things permitted; precisely because most things are permitted and only a few things forbidden. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Everyone seems to assume that the unscrupulous parts of journalism will be the frivolous or jocular parts. This is against all ethical experience. Jokes… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
For Scotland has a double dose of the poison called heredity; the sense of blood in the aristocrat, the sense of doom in the… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Faith is always at a disadvantage; it is a perpetually defeated thing which survives all conquerors. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
A building is akin to dogma; it is insolent, like dogma. Whether or no it is permanent, it claims permanence, like a dogma. People… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
The triangle of truisms, of father, mother and child, cannot be destroyed; it can only destroy those civilizations which disregard it. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Criticism is only words about words, and of what use are words about such words as these? — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place...The old humility was a spur that prevented a man from stopping; not a… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Plato was only a Bernard Shaw who unfortunately made his jokes in Greek. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
