Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

I would look at the first chapter of any new novel as a final test of its merits. If there was a murdered man under the sofa in the first chapter, I read the story. If there was no murdered man under the sofa in the first chapter, I dismissed the story as tea-table twaddle, which it often really was.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

The great ideals of the past failed not by being outlived (which must mean over-lived), but by not being lived enough. Mankind has not passed through the Middle Ages. Rather mankind has retreated from the Middle Ages in reaction and rout. The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

The man who lives in a small community lives in a much larger world... The reason is obvious. In a large community we can choose our companions. In a small community our companions are chosen for us.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

You can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Spiritual Quotes , Witty Quotes

There is no logical connection between flying and laying eggs.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Eggs Quotes , Flying Quotes

Real development is not leaving things behind, as on a road, but drawing life from them, as from a root.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

If, therefore, nonsense is really to be the literature of the future, it must have its own version of the Cosmos to offer; the world must not only be tragic, romantic, and religious, it must be nonsensical also.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Religious Quotes , Cosmos Quotes

I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

All science, even the divine science, is a sublime detective story. Only it is not set to detect why a man is dead; but the darker secret of why he is alive.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Spring never is spring unless it comes too soon.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

None of the modern machines, none of the modern paraphernalia. . . have any power except over the people who choose to use them.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

I have known many happy marriages, but never a compatible one. The whole aim of marriage is to fight through and survive the instant when incompatibility becomes unquestionable. For a man and a woman, as such, are incompatible.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

America has a new delicacy, a coarse, rank refinement.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , America Quotes , Delicacy Quotes

Classic literature is still something that hangs in the air like a song.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Song Quotes , Air Quotes

It is true that I am of an older fashion; much that I love has been destroyed or sent into exile.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Fashion Quotes , Culture Quotes

"Are you a devil?" "I am a man," answered Father Brown gravely; "and therefore have all devils in my heart."

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Father Quotes , Heart Quotes

Thrift is poetic because it is creative; waste is unpoetic because it is waste.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Creative Quotes , Waste Quotes

[Fairy tales] make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad, but chess players do.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Player Quotes , Mad Quotes