“It is you who are unpoetical," replied the poet Syme. "If what you say of clerks is true, they can only be… — G.K. Chesterton Poetry Copy Share Image
“I cannot agree with the gentleman in the magenta coat that Potter’s Pond is only a wretched little hamlet. But it is… — G.K. Chesterton Reading the bible Copy Share Image
“My first and last philosophy ... I learnt in the nursery... The things I believed then, the things I believe most now,… — G.K. Chesterton Fairy Copy Share Image
“Just as we all like love tales because there is an instinct of sex, we all like astonishing tales because they touch… — G.K. Chesterton Books Copy Share Image
“He felt the full warmth of that pleasure from which the proud shut themselves out; the pleasure which not only goes with… — G.K. Chesterton Humiliation Copy Share Image
“It is cold anarchy to say that all men are to meddle in all men's marriages. It is cold anarchy to say… — G.K. Chesterton Anarchy Copy Share Image
“It is easy to be a madman: it is easy to be a heretic. It is always easy to let the age… — G.K. Chesterton Christian science Copy Share Image
“Nobody can imagine how nothing could turn into something. Nobody can get an inch nearer to it by explaining how something could… — G.K. Chesterton Creation Copy Share Image
“Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die.… — G.K. Chesterton Courage Copy Share Image
“The pagan, or rational, virtues are such things as justice and temperance, and Christianity has adopted them. The three mystical virtues which… — G.K. Chesterton Character Copy Share Image
“This is the only period in all human history when people were proud of being modern. For though to-day is always to-day… — G.K. Chesterton History Copy Share Image
“The great error consists in supposing that poetry is an unnatural form of language. We should all like to speak poetry at… — G.K. Chesterton Poetry 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… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Because we are not in a civilization which believes strongly in oracles or sacred places, we see the full frenzy of those… — G.K. Chesterton Dogma Copy Share Image
“Morality did not begin by one man saying to another, "I will not hit you if you do not hit me"; there… — G.K. Chesterton Character Copy Share Image
“Of real sensational journalism, as it exists in France, in Ireland, and in America, we have no trace in this country. When… — G.K. Chesterton Adventure Copy Share Image
“The devil can quote Scripture for his purpose; and the text of Scripture which he now most commonly quotes is, “The Kingdom… — G.K. Chesterton Kingdom of god Copy Share Image
“When I was a boy there were two curious men running about who were called the optimist and the pessimist. I constantly… — G.K. Chesterton Pessimism 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 Great men Copy Share Image
“I cannot understand the people who take literature seriously; but I can love them, and I do. Out of my love I… — G.K. Chesterton Books Copy Share Image
“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw… — G.K. Chesterton Black and white Copy Share Image
“The modern mind is forced towards the future by a certain sense of fatigue, not unmixed with terror, with which it regards… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“Let us, at least, dig and seek till we have discovered our own opinions. The dogmas we really hold are far more… — G.K. Chesterton Existence of god Copy Share Image
“The main point of Christianity was this: that Nature is not our mother: Nature is our sister. We can be proud of… — G.K. Chesterton Catholic Copy Share Image
“Naturally, therefore, these people talk about 'a happy time coming'; 'the paradise of the future'; 'mankind freed from the bondage of vice… — G.K. Chesterton Anarchists Copy Share Image
“When the business man rebukes the idealism of his office-boy, it is commonly in some such speech as this: "Ah, yes, when… — G.K. Chesterton Age Copy Share Image
“Because we are not in a civilization which believes strongly in oracles or sacred places, we see the full frenzy of those… — G.K. Chesterton Civilization Copy Share Image
“Take the case of courage. No quality has ever so much addled the brains and tangled the definitions of merely rational sages.… — G.K. Chesterton Courage Copy Share Image
“How did people come to chant rude poems while pulling certain ropes or gathering certain fruit, and why did nobody do anything… — G.K. Chesterton Poetry 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
“Briefly, this human belief in a sexual bond rests on a principle of which the modern mind has made a very inadequate… — G.K. Chesterton Faith Copy Share Image
“He had thought at first that they were all of common stature and costume, with the evident exception of the hairy Gogol.… — G.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,… — G.K. Chesterton Business Copy Share Image
“Efficiency," of course, is futile … It has no philosophy for incidents before they happen; therefore it has no power of choice.… — G.K. Chesterton Copy Share Image
“The Fear of the Lord, that is the beginning of wisdom, and therefore belongs to the beginnings, and is felt in the… — G.K. Chesterton Aquinas Copy Share Image
“The whole point of education is that it should give a man abstract and eternal standards, by which he can judge material… — G.K. Chesterton Comparison Copy Share Image
“You have no business to be an unbeliever. You ought to stand for all the things these stupid people call superstitions. Come… — G.K. Chesterton Agnostic Copy Share Image
“There is a limit to human charity," said Lady Outram, trembling all over. "There is," said Father Brown dryly, "and that is… — G.K. Chesterton Charity Copy Share Image
“We say that the most dangerous criminal now is the entirely lawless modern philosopher. Compared to him, burglars and bigamists are essentially… — G.K. Chesterton Crime Copy Share Image
“Some stupid people started the idea that because women obviously back up their own people through everything, therefore women are blind and… — G.K. Chesterton Stupid people Copy Share Image
