Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes
Men may keep a sort of level of good, but no man has ever been able to keep on one level of evil.
Nine times out of ten it is the coarse word that condemns an evil, and the refined word that excuses it.
The grinding power of the plain words of the Gospel story is like the power of mill-stones, and those who can read them simply enough will feel as if rocks had been rolled upon them.
Criticism is only words about words, and of what use are words about such words as these?
One can no more have a private religion than one can have a private sun or a private moon.
Any one of the strange laws we suffer is a compromise between a fad and a vested interest.
Literature and fiction are two entirely different things. Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.
How much happier you would be, how much more of you there would be, if the hammer of a higher God could smash your small cosmos.
There is only one thing that it requires real courage to say, and that is a truism.
A great man is not a man so strong that he feels less than other men; he is a man so strong that he feels more.
It is very foolish of a man to be frightened of a skeleton, for Nature has put an insurmountable obstacle against running away from it.
The worst moment for an atheist is when he feels a profound sense of gratitude and has no one to thank.
Every one on the earth should believe that he has something to give to the world which cannot otherwise be given.
There are many ways to fall down, but there's only one way to stand up straight.
The coziness between church and state is good for the state and bad for the church
The man who says, 'my country right or wrong' is like the man who says, 'my mother drunk or sober'
Sometimes he even embarrassed the company by phrases suggesting that there was some difference between a Liberal and a Conservative.
Every work of art has one indispensable mark ... the center of it is simple, however much the fulfillment may be complicated.
The first fact about the celebration of a birthday is that it is a way of affirming defiantly, and even flamboyantly, that it is a good thing to be alive.
Grey is a colour that always seems on the eve of changing to some other colour.
Boys like romantic tales; but babies like realistic tales-because they find them romantic.
The true savage is a slave, and is always talking about what he must do; the true civilised man is a free man, and is always talking about what he may do.
When once you have got hold of a vulgar joke, you may be certain that you have got hold of a subtle and spiritual idea.
Earth will grow worse till men redeem it, And wars more evil, ere all wars cease.
There is also an insulting speech about 'one grey day just like another'. You might as well talk about one green tree like another.
The hands that had made the sun and stars were too small to reach the huge heads of the cattle. Upon this paradox, we might almost say upon this jest, all the literature of our faith is founded.
If the world becomes pagan and perishes, the last man left alive would do well to quote the Iliad and die.
I am concerned with a certain way of looking at life, which was created in me by the fairy tales, but has since been meekly ratified by the mere facts.
The objection to fairy stories is that they tell children there are dragons. But children have always known there are dragons. Fairy stories tell children that dragons can be killed.
It is very good for a man to talk about what he does not understand; as long as he understands that he does not understand it.
A man who says that no patriot should attack the war until it is over... is saying no good son should warn his mother of a cliff until she has fallen.
I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.
The family is the test of freedom because the family is the only thing that the free man makes for himself and by himself.
A good novel tells us the truth about its hero but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.