Gilbert K. Chesterton 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.

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

And my haunting instinct that somehow good was not merely a tool to be used, but a relic to be guarded, like the goods from Crusoe's ship--even that had been the wild whisper of something originally wise, for, according to Christianity, we were indeed the survivors of a wreck, the crew of a golden ship that had gone down before the beginning of the world.

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The cosmos is about the smallest hole that a man can hide his head in.

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Americans are a very backward people, with all the real virtues of a backward people; the patriarchal simplicity and human dignity of a democracy, and a respect for labor uncorrupted by cynicism.

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

The cause which is blocking all progress today is the subtle scepticism which whispers in a million ears that things are not good enough to be worth improving. If the world is good we are revolutionaries, if the world is evil we must be conservatives. These essays, futile as they are considered as serious literature, are yet ethically sincere, since they seek to remind men that things must be loved first and improved afterwards.

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The aim of life is appreciation; there is no sense in not appreciating things; and there is no sense in having more of them if you have less appreciation of them.

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

The good Bishop of Assisi expressed a sort of horror at the hard life which the Little Brothers lived at the Portiuncula, without comforts, without possessions, eating anything they could get and sleeping anyhow on the ground. St. Francis answered him with that curious and almost stunning shrewdness which the unworldly can sometimes wield like a club of stone. He said, 'If we had any possessions, we should need weapons and laws to defend them.

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Experience which was once claimed by the aged is now claimed exclusively by the young.

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Nothing can ever overcome that one enormous sex (female) superiority that even the male child is born closer to his mother than to his father.

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A change of opinions is almost unknown in an elderly military man.

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But I was frightfully fond of the universe and wanted to address it by a diminutive. I often did so; and it never seemed to mind.

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One can hardly think too little of one's self. One can hardly think too much of one's soul.

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

We all have a little weakness, which is very natural but rather misleading, for supposing that this epoch must be the end of the world because it will be the end of us. How future generations will get on without us is indeed, when we come to think of it, quite a puzzle. But I suppose they will get on somehow, and may possibly venture to revise our judgments as we have revised earlier judgments.

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

A radical generally meant a man who thought he could somehow pull up the root without affecting the flower. A conservative generally meant a man who wanted to conserve everything except his own reason for conserving anything.

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Think of all those ages through which men have had the courage to die, and then remember that we have actually fallen to talking about having the courage to live.

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Women prefer to talk in twos, while men prefer to talk in threes.

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The professional soldier gains more and more power as the general courage of a community declines.

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It is impossible without humility to enjoy anything - even pride.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Humility Quotes , Pride Quotes

The men of the clique live together because they have the same kind of soul, and their narrowness is a narrowness of spiritual coherence and contentment, like that which exists in hell . . .

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

Art is limitation; the essence of every picture is the frame. If you draw a giraffe, you must draw him with a long neck. If in your bold creative way you hold yourself free to draw a giraffe with a short neck, you will really find that you are not free to draw a giraffe.

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