Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

Shall I tell you the secret of the whole world? It is that we have only known the back of the world. We see everything from behind, and it looks brutal. That is not a tree, but the back of a tree. That is not a cloud, but the back of a cloud. Cannot you see that everything is stooping and hiding a face? If we could only get round in front--

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Clouds Quotes , Tree Quotes

The vulgar man is always the most distinguished, for the very desire to be distinguished is vulgar.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Men Quotes , Vulgarity Is Quotes

Among the rich you will never find a really generous man even by accident. They may give their money away, but they will never give themselves away; they are egotistic, secretive, dry as old bones. To be smart enough to get all that money you must be dull enough to want it.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

It is because artists do not practise, patrons do not patronize, crowds do not assemble to reverently worship the great work of Doing Nothing, that the world has lost its philosophy and even failed to invent a new religion.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Philosophy Quotes , Artist Quotes

Posting a letter and getting married [sic] are among the few things left that are entirely romantic; for to be entirely romantic, a thing must be irrevocable

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Romance Quotes , Letters Quotes

I still think sincere pessimism the unpardonable sin.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

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

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton 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

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

The historic glory of America lies in the fact that it is the one nation that was founded like a church. That is, it was founded on a faith that was not merely summed up after it had exited, but was defined before it existed.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

The scientific facts, which were supposed to contradict the faith in the nineteenth century, are nearly all of them regarded as unscientific fictions in the twentieth century.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

To be simple is the best thing in the world.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

I should favour anything that would increase the present enormous authority of women and their creative action in their own homes. The average woman...is a despot; the average man is a serf.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Women Quotes , Home Quotes

Against a dark sky all flowers look like fireworks. There is something strange about them, at once vivid and secret, like flowers traced in fire in the phantasmal garden of a witch.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Flower Quotes , Dark Quotes

The whole truth is generally the ally of virtue; a half-truth is always the ally of some vice.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Unfortunately, 19th-century scientists were just as ready to jump to the conclusion that any guess about nature was an obvious fact, as were 17th-century sectarians to jump to the conclusion that any guess about Scripture was the obvious explanation . . . . and this clumsy collision of two very impatient forms of ignorance was known as the quarrel of Science and Religion.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Ignorance Quotes , Two Quotes

The noble temptation to see too much in everything.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Temptation Quotes , Noble Quotes

Our digestions, going sacredly and silently right, that is the foundation of all poetry.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Foundation Quotes

The past is democratic, because it is a people. The future is despotic, because it is a caprice. Every man is alone in his prediction, just as each man is alone in a dream.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

It is often a mistake to combine two pleasures, because pleasures, like pains, can act as counter-irri-tants to each other.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Pain Quotes , Mistake Quotes