Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

A man will not roll in the snow for a stream of tendency by which all things fulfill the law of their being. He will not go without food in the name of something, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness. He will do things like this, or pretty nearly like this, under quite a different impulse. He will do these things when he is in love.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Inspirational Quotes , Inspiring Quotes

The modern world... has no notion except that of simplifying something by destroying nearly everything.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

There are no new lies, no new heresies. Man is simply not that creative.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

I suppose every one must have reflected how primeval and how poetical are the things that one carries in one's pocket; the pocket-knife, for instance, the type of all human tools, the infant of the sword. Once I planned to write a book of poems entirely about things in my pockets. But I found it would be too long; and the age of the great epics is past.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Let us not decide what is good, but let it be considered good not to decide it.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

For my part, I should be inclined to suggest that the chief object of education should be to restore simplicity. If you like to put it so, the chief object of education is not to learn things; nay, the chief object of education is to unlearn things.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Simplicity Quotes , Should Quotes

Great truths can only be forgotten and can never be falsified.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

The trouble with always trying to preserve the health of the body is that it is so difficult to do without destroying the health of the mind.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Health Quotes , Science Quotes

There is at the back of every artist’s mind something like a pattern and a type of architecture. The original quality in any man of imagination is imagery. It is a thing like the landscape of his dreams; the sort of world he would like to make or in which he would like to wander, the strange flora and fauna, his own secret planet, the sort of thing he likes to think about. This general atmosphere, and pattern or a structure of growth, governs all his creations, however varied.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

If you happen to read fairy tales, you will observe that one idea runs from one end of them to the other--the idea that peace and happiness can only exist on some condition. This idea, which is the core of ethics, is the core of the nursery-tales.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Running Quotes , Ideas Quotes

True contentment is a thing as active as agriculture. It is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. It is arduous and it is rare.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Happiness Quotes , Power Quotes

God is not a symbol of goodness; goodness is a symbol of God

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Goodness Quotes

It is unpardonable conceit not to laugh at your own jokes. Joking is undignified; that is why it is so good for one's soul. Do not fancy you can be a detached wit and avoid being a buffoon; you cannot. If you are the Court Jester you must be the Court Fool.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Laughing Quotes , Soul Quotes

The believers in miracles accept them (rightly or wrongly) because they have evidence for them. The disbelievers in miracles deny them (rightly or wrongly) because they have a doctrine against them.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Miracle Quotes , Doctrine Quotes

If we are bound to improve, we need not trouble to improve. The pure doctrine of progress is the best of all reasons for not being a progressive.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Progress Quotes , Doctrine Quotes

The perils, rewards, punishments, and fulfillments of an adventure must be real, or the adventure is only a shifting and heartless nightmare. If I bet I must be made to pay, or there is no poetry in betting. If I challenge I must be made to fight, or there is no poetry in challenging. If I vow to be faithful I must be cursed when I am unfaithful, or there is no fun vowing.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Fun Quotes , Real Quotes

Every remedy is a desperate remedy. Every cure is a miraculous cure. Curing a madman is not arguing with a philosopher; it is casting out a devil.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Devil Quotes , Casting Quotes

The new school of art and thought does indeed wear an air of audacity, and breaks out everywhere into blasphemies, as if it required any courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that it requires real courage to say, and that is a truism.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Courage Quotes , Art Quotes