Gilbert K. Chesterton

To be simple is the best thing in the world.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Ivory may not be so white as snow, but the whole Arctic continent does not make ivory black.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

'My country, right or wrong' is a thing no patriot would ever think of saying except in a desperate case. It is…

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Mysticism keeps mankind sane. As long as you have mystery you have health; when you destroy mystery you create morbidity.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

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

Hope means expectancy when things are otherwise hopeless.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

The martyr endured tortures to affirm his belief in truth but he never asserted his disbelief in torture.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

For us who live in cities Nature is not natural. Nature is supernatural. Just as monks watched and strove to get a…

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

There is a certain poetic value, and that a genuine one, in this sense of having missed the full meaning of things.…

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

A yawn is a silent shout.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Life is serious all the time, but living cannot be. You may have all the solemnity you wish in your neckties, but…

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

One must somehow find a way of loving the world without trusting it; somehow one must love the world without being worldly.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

The truth is that there are no things for which men will make such herculean efforts as the things of which they…

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Theology is simply that part of religion that requires brains.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Folk-lore means that the soul is sane, but that the universe is wild and full of marvels. Realism means that the world…

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Against a dark sky all flowers look like fireworks. There is something strange about them, at once vivid and secret, like flowers…

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

The old assumption of the approximate impossibility of war really rested on a similar assumption about the impossibility of evil-and especially of…

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

A society is in decay, final or transitional, when common sense really becomes uncommon.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Destiny is but a phrase of the weak human heart - the dark apology for every error. The strong and virtuous admit…

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

The more we are certain what good is, the more we shall see good in everything.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

I am a journalist and have no earthly motives except curiosity and personal vanity.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable one. The trouble is that it is…

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

It is because artists do not practise, patrons do not patronize, crowds do not assemble to reverently worship the great work of…

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Busy editors cannot be expected to put on their posters, "Mr. Wilkinson Still Safe," or "Mr. Jones, of Worthing, Not Dead Yet."…

— Gilbert K. Chesterton