Gilbert K. Chesterton 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.

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

Were Patrick Henry to return to earth and look around on the vast economic order of the day, he might revise his observation and merely say ‘Give me death’-the alternative being manifestly impossible under modern conditions.

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

By a curious confusion, many modern critics have passed from the proposition that a masterpiece may be unpopular to the other proposition that unless it is unpopular it cannot be a masterpiece.

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Faith is always at a disadvantage; it is a perpetually defeated thing which survives all conquerors.

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The comedy of man survives the tragedy of man.

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

A child's instinct is almost perfect in the matter of fighting. The child's hero is always the man or boy who defends himself suddenly and splendidly against aggression.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Children Quotes , Hero Quotes

A detective story generally describes six living men discussing how it is that a man is dead. A modern philosophic story generally describes six dead men discussing how any man can possibly be alive.

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

The evolutionists seem to know everything about the missing link except the fact that it is missing.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Missing Quotes , Links Quotes

I like the Americans for a great many reasons. I like them because even the modern thing called industrialism has not entirely destroyed in them the very ancient thing called democracy. I like them because they have a respect for work which really curbs the human tendency to snobbishness.

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The new community which the capitalists are now constructing will be a very complete and absolute community; and one which will tolerate nothing really independent of itself.

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La mejor prueba de la cultura y la liberalidad de un hombre es su actitud ante las cosas que nunca sucedieron.

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Moral issues are always terribly complex for someone without principles.

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Christianity met the mythological search for romance by being a story and the philosophical search for truth by being a true story.

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To be simple is the best thing in the world; to be modest is the next best thing. I am not sure about being quiet.

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

Around every corner is another gift waiting to surprise us, and it will surprise us if we can achieve control over our natural tendencies to make comparisons [to things that are better rather than things that are worse], to take things for granted [rather than imagining how much worse things would be if they weren't there and so feeling grateful], and to feel entitled!

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Grateful Quotes , Waiting Quotes

A stiff apology is a second insult... The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Forgiveness Quotes , Im Sorry Quotes

There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect. Men do not quarrel about the meaning of sunsets; they never dispute that the hawthorn says the best and wittiest thing about the spring.

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

The more we are proud that the Bethlehem story is plain enough to be understood by the shepherds, and almost by the sheep, the more do we let ourselves go, in dark and gorgeous imaginative frescoes or pageants about the mystery and majesty of the Three Magian Kings.

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The human race is always trying this dodge of making everything entirely easy; but the difficulty which it shifts off one thing it shifts to another.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Race Quotes , Always Trying Quotes

If you attempt an actual argument with a modern paper of opposite politics, you will have no answer except slanging or silence.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Opposites Quotes , Silence Quotes