The artistic temperament is a disease that afflicts amateurs. It is a disease which arises from men no having sufficient power of… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Architecture is the alphabet of giants; it is the largest set of symbols ever made to meet the eyes of men. A… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
There is no better test of a man's ultimate chivalry and integrity than how he behaves when he is wrong... A stiff… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective. Unless a man starts on the strange assumption that… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
A child's instinct is almost perfect in the matter of fighting. The child's hero is always the man or boy who defends… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
The greatest political storm flutters only a fringe of humanity. But an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Only men to whom the family is sacred will ever have a standard or a status by which to criticize the State.… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
I would not say that old men grow wise, for men never grow wise; and many old men retain a very attractive… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
The whole curse of the last century has been what is called the Swing of the Pendulum; that is, the idea that… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
So far as a man may be proud of a religion rooted in humility, I am very proud of my religion; I… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Ideas are dangerous, but the man to whom they are least dangerous is the man of ideas. He is acquainted with ideas,… — 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
What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place...The old humility was a spur that prevented a man from stopping;… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Men can construct a science with very few instruments, or with very plain instruments; but no one on earth could construct a… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
But a somewhat more liberal and sympathetic examination of mankind will convince us that the cross is even older than the gibbet,… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect. Men do not quarrel about… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
We have passed the age of the demagogue, the man who has little to say and says it loud. We have come… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
I have myself a poetical enthusiasm for pigs, and the paradise of my fancy is one where pigs have wings. But it… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Instead of the machine being a giant to which the man is the pygmy, we must at last reverse the proportions until… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
You've got that eternal idiotic idea that if anarchy came it would come from the poor. Why should it? The poor have… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
In every serious doctrine of the destiny of men, there is some trace of the doctrine of the equality of men. But… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Mr. Blatchford says that there was not a Fall but a gradual rise. But the very word "rise" implies that you know… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Gratitude produced the most purely joyful moments that have been known to man. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Circumstances break men's bones; it has never been shown that they break men's optimism. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
A tragedy means always a mans struggle with that which is stronger than man. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Where does a wise man kick a pebble? On the beach. Where does a wise man hide a leaf? In the forest. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
And it is always the humble man who talks too much; the proud man watches himself too closely. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
No man can break any of the Ten Commandments. He can only break himself against them. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
All men matter. You matter. I matter. It's the hardest thing in theology to believe. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
If the common man in the past had a grave respect for property, it may conceivably have been because he sometimes had… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Odd, isn't it, that a thief and a vagabond should repent, when so many who are rich and secure remain hard and… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
The average woman is at the head of something with which she can do as she likes; the average man has to… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
When a woman puts up her fists to a man she is putting herself in the only posture in which he is… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
The power which makes a man able to entertain a good impulse is the same as that which enables him to make… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
For religion all men are equal, as all pennies are equal, because the only value of any of them is that they… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
The men of the clique live together because they have the same kind of soul, and their narrowness is a narrowness of… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Man is always something worse or something better than an animal; and a mere argument from animal perfection never touches him at… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Man is more himself, man is more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing in him, and grief the superficial. Melancholy should… — 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
