Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

The strangest whim has seized me ... After all I think I will not hang myself today.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Suicide Quotes , Thinking Quotes

Ingratitude is surely the chief of the intellectual sins of man. He takes his political benefits for granted, just as he takes the skies and the seasons for granted.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Men Quotes , Sky Quotes

Women are the only realists; their whole object in life is to pit their realism against the extravagant, excessive, and occasionally drunken idealism of men.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Love Quotes , Men Quotes

The truth is, of course, that the curtness of the Ten Commandments is an evidence, not of the gloom and narrowness of a religion, but, on the contrary, of its liberality and humanity. It is shorter to state the things forbidden than the things permitted; precisely because most things are permitted, and only a few things are forbidden.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Christian Quotes , Humanity Quotes

All true friendliness begins with fire and food and drink and the recognition of rain or frost.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , True Friend Quotes , Rain Quotes

If a man only likes victory he must always come late for the battle.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Men Quotes , Victory Quotes

...there is in life an element of elfin coincidence which people reckoning on the prosaic may perpetually miss. As it has been well expressed in the paradox of Poe, wisdom should reason on the unforeseen.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Wisdom Quotes , People Quotes

The only words that ever satisfied me as describing nature are the terms used in fairy books, charm, spell, enchantment; they express the arbitrariness of the fact and its mystery.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Nature Quotes , Book Quotes

Marriage is a duel to the death which no man of honour should decline.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Love Quotes , Men Quotes

Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all. And faith means believing the incredible, or it is no virtue at all.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Faith Quotes , Believe Quotes

There is a case for telling the truth; there is a case for avoiding the scandal; but there is no possible defense for the man who tells the scandal, but does not tell the truth

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Truth Quotes , Honesty Quotes

A man making the confession of any creed worth ten minutes' intelligent talk, is always a man who gains something and gives up something. So long as he does both he can create: for he is making an outline and a shape.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Giving Up Quotes , Wine Quotes

They hate kings, they hate priests, they hate soldiers, they hate sailors. They distrust men of science, they denounce the middle classes, they despair of working men, but they adore humanity. Only they always speak of humanity as if it were a curious foreign nation. They are dividing themselves more and more from men to exalt the strange race of mankind. They are ceasing to be human in the effort to be humane.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Kings Quotes , Hate Quotes

When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Gratitude Quotes , Live Life Quotes

In the fairy tale, an incomprehensible happiness rests upon an incomprehensible condition. A box is opened and all evils fly out. A word is forgotten and cities perish. A lamp is lit and love flies away. An apple is eaten and the hope of God is gone.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Apples Quotes , Cities Quotes

It is still bad taste to be an avowed atheist. But now it is equally bad taste to be an avowed Christian.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Christian Quotes , Atheist Quotes

When you with velvets mantled o'er, Defy December's tempests frore, Oh! spare one garment from your store, To clothe the poor at Christmas.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Christmas Quotes , Velvet Quotes

It is a mathematical fact that if a line be not perfectly directed towards a point, it will actually go further away from it as it comes nearer to it.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Lines Quotes , Facts Quotes

Busy editors cannot be expected to put on their posters, "Mr. Wilkinson Still Safe," or "Mr. Jones, of Worthing, Not Dead Yet." They cannot announce the happiness of mankind at all. They cannot describe all the forks that are not stolen, or all the marriages that are not judiciously dissolved. Hence the complex picture they give of life is of necessity fallacious; they can only represent what is unusual.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Editors Quotes , Giving Quotes

In a world where everything is ridiculous, nothing can be ridiculed. You cannot unmask a mask.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , World Quotes , Ridiculous Quotes