“I do not know by what extraordinary mental accident modern writers so constantly connect the idea of progress with the idea of… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“A finished tale may give a man immortality in the light and literary sense; but an unfinished tale suggests another immortality, more… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Modern tragic writers have to write short stories; if they wrote long stories…cheerfulness would creep in. Such stories are like stings; brief,… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“To these things do writers sink; and then the critics tell them that they “talk for effect”; and then the writers answer:… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“No man ought to write at all, or even to speak at all, unless he thinks that he is in truth and… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Whatever the word "great" means, Dickens was what it means. Even the fastidious and unhappy who cannot read his books without a… — 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
“For instance, the writer of whom I speak indulges in the millionth mechanical repetition of the charge of mechanical repetition. He says… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“I do not know by what extraordinary mental accident modern writers so constantly connect the idea of progress with the idea of… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The modern writers who have suggested, in a more or less open manner, that the family is a bad institution, have generally… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“They preferred writing about great men to writing about great hills; but they sat on the great hills to write it. They… — 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
