There is nothing harder to learn than painting and nothing which most people take less trouble about learning. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
What people call impartiality may simply mean indifference, and what people call partiality may simply mean mental activity. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Is there anyone... who will maintain that the Party System could have been created by people particularly fond of truth? — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Thoughts on the Merits of Work The worst of work nowadays is what happens to people when they cease to work. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
But we are the people of England; and we have not spoken yet. Smile at us, pay us, pass us. But do… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
The truth is that it is our attitude towards children that is right, and our attitude towards grown-up people that is wrong. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Americans are a very backward people, with all the real virtues of a backward people; the patriarchal simplicity and human dignity of… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
People who make history know nothing about history. You can see that in the sort of history they make. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
There are many definite methods, honest and dishonest, which make people rich; the only instinct I know of which does it is… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
A good Moslem king was one who was strict in religion, valiant in battle, just in giving judgment among his people, but… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
All men thirst to confess their crimes more than tired beasts thirst for water; but they naturally object to confessing them while… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
The coming peril is the intellectual, educational, psychological and artistic overproduction, which, equally with economic overproduction, threatens the well-being of contemporary civilisation.… — 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 truth is that it is our attitude towards children that is right, and our attitude towards grown-up people that is wrong.… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Liberty is the very last idea that seems to occur to anybody, in considering any political or social proposal. It is only… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
There is nothing harder to learn than painting and nothing which most people take less trouble about learning. An art school is… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
The modern world has far too little understanding of the art of keeping young. Its notion of progress has been to pile… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
Stated baldly, charity certainly means one of two things–pardoning unpardonable acts, or loving unlovable people. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
We all know that the 'divine glory of the ego' is socially a great nuisance; we all do actually value our friends… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
O God of earth and altar, Bow down and hear our cry, Our earthly rulers falter, Our people drift and die; The… — 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
Youth is always too serious, and just now it is too serious about frivolity. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share
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
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
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
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
Faith is always at a disadvantage; it is a perpetually defeated thing which survives all conquerors. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share
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
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
Criticism is only words about words, and of what use are words about such words as these? — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share
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
Plato was only a Bernard Shaw who unfortunately made his jokes in Greek. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share
Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist. — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share
Eugenics asserts that all men must be so stupid that they cannot manage their own affairs; and also so clever that they can manage… — Gilbert K. Chesterton Copy Share
