“the fundamental things in a man are not the things he explains, but rather the things he forgets to explain.” — G.K. Chesterton Philosophy Copy Share Image
“I strongly object to wrong arguments on the right side. I think I object to them more than to the wrong arguments… — G.K. Chesterton Arguments Copy Share Image
“The pessimist can be enraged at wrong; but only the optimist can be surprised at it.” — G.K. Chesterton Optimism Copy Share Image
“The more a man looks at a thing, the less he can see it, and the more a man learns a thing,… — G.K. Chesterton Learning Copy Share Image
“The romantic seeks only to get his head into the heavens. The rationalist seeks to get the heavens into his head –… — G.K. Chesterton Rationalist Copy Share Image
“War in the wide modern sense, is possible, not because more men disagree, but because more men agree.” — G.K. Chesterton Peace Copy Share Image
“In short, there is in life an element of elfin coincidence which people reckoning on the prosaic may perpetually miss.” — G.K. Chesterton Coincidence Copy Share Image
“It is quite futile to argue that man is small compared to the cosmos; for man was always small compared to the… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“A religion is not the church a man goes to but the cosmos he lives in; and if any sceptic forgets it,… — G.K. Chesterton Catholic Copy Share Image
“There is a tradition that jumping off a precipice is prejudicial to the health; and therefore nobody does it. Then appears a… — G.K. Chesterton Health Copy Share Image
“I merely declare my independence. I merely claim my choice of all the tools in the universe; and I shall not admit… — G.K. Chesterton Freedom Copy Share Image
“Virtue is not the absence of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate thing, like pain… — G.K. Chesterton Character Copy Share Image
“Nothing is important except the fate of the soul; and literature is only redeemed from an utter triviality ... by the fact… — G.K. Chesterton Books Copy Share Image
“We think the cat superior because we have (or most of us have) a particular philosophy to the effect that life is… — G.K. Chesterton Cats Copy Share Image
“There was one special thing you promised me at the beginning of the affair, and which you have certainly given me by… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The difference between the poet and the mathematician is that the poet tries to get his head into the heavens while the… — G.K. Chesterton Mathematics Copy Share Image
“In a word, God paints in many colors; but he never paints so gorgeously, I had almost said so gaudily, as when… — G.K. Chesterton Color Copy Share Image
“Charity is the power of defending that which we know to be indefensible. Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances… — G.K. Chesterton Generosity Copy Share Image
“The pessimists believe that the cosmos is a clock that is running down; the progressives believe it is a clock that they… — G.K. Chesterton Astronomy Copy Share Image
“When the great Greek cry breaks into the Latin of the Mass, as old as Christianity itself, it may surprise some to… — G.K. Chesterton Christianity Copy Share Image
“And an even stronger example of Mr. Wells's indifference to the human psychology can be found in his cosmopolitanism, the abolition in… — G.K. Chesterton Conflict Copy Share Image
“It is very currently suggested that the modern man is the heir of all the ages, that he has got the good… — G.K. Chesterton Modern man Copy Share Image
“I'm afraid I'm a practical man,' said the doctor with gruff humour, 'and I don't bother much about religion and philosophy.' 'You'll… — G.K. Chesterton Good men Copy Share Image
“So far as he could prevent it, Dickens never permitted a day of his life to be ordinary. There was always some… — G.K. Chesterton Comedy Copy Share Image
“And in history I found that Christianity, so far from belonging to the Dark Ages, was the one path across the Dark… — G.K. Chesterton Christianity Copy Share Image
“The things said most confidently by advanced persons to crowded audiences are generally those opposite to the fact; it is actually our… — G.K. Chesterton Politics Copy Share Image
“If the three brothers all ride horses, there are six animals and eighteen legs involved: that is true rationalism, and fairyland is… — G.K. Chesterton Brotherhood Copy Share Image
“Thoroughly worldly people never understand even the world; they rely altogether on a few cynical maxims which are not true.” — G.K. Chesterton Cynical Copy Share Image
“The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his… — G.K. Chesterton Intelligence Copy Share Image
“Pessimism is not in being tired of evil but in being tired of good. Despair does not lie in being weary of… — G.K. Chesterton Despair Copy Share Image
“Londoners had no particular objection to the King making a fool of himself, but they became indignant when it became evident that… — G.K. Chesterton Fool Copy Share Image
“We do wrong to seek peace in Nature; we should rather seek the nobler sort of war; and see all the trees… — G.K. Chesterton Nature Copy Share Image
“A joke is by its nature a protest against sense. It is no good attacking nonsense for being successfully nonsensical.” — G.K. Chesterton Comedy Copy Share Image
“We are rarely in danger of examining to excess, especially when the subject is the shape of our own lives.” — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“In most commercial ways we’re a pretty forward country. In these moral ways we’re content to be a pretty backward country.” — G.K. Chesterton Patriotism Copy Share Image
“The little sins are sometimes harder to confess than the big ones—but that's why it's so important to confess them.” — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“We are in this fairyland on sufferance; it is not for us to quarrel with the conditions under which we enjoy this… — G.K. Chesterton Dreams Copy Share Image
“We say that the dangerous criminal is the educated criminal. We say that the most dangerous criminal now is the entirely lawless… — G.K. Chesterton Crime Copy Share Image
“The huge modern heresy is to alter the human soul to fit modern social conditions, instead of altering modern social conditions to… — G.K. Chesterton Heresy Copy Share Image
“Being a nation means standing up to your equals, whereas being an empire only means kicking your inferiors.” — G.K. Chesterton Empire Copy Share Image
