Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

Exactly what the fairy tale does is this: it accustoms him for a series of clear pictures to the idea that these limitless terrors had a limit, that these shapeless enemies have enemies in the knights of God, that there is something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than strong fear.

4 years ago

Message Copied

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

An almost unnatural vigilance is really required of the citizen because of the horrible rapidity with which human institutions grow old.

4 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Citizens Quotes , Institutions Quotes

To do Mohammed justice, his main attack was against the idolatries of Asia. Only he thought, just as the Arians did and just as the Unitarians do, that he could attack them better with a greater approximation to plain theism. What distinguishes his heresy from anything like an Arian or Albigensian heresy is that, as it sprang up on the borders of Christendom, it could spread outwards to a barbaric world.

4 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Justice Quotes , Islam Quotes

There are two kinds of people in the world, the conscious dogmatists and the unconscious dogmatists. I have always found myself that the unconscious dogmatists were by far the most dogmatic.

4 years ago

Message Copied

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

A puritan is a person who pours righteous indignation into the wrong things.

4 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Puritan Quotes , Righteous Quotes

When "everyone knows" that something is so, it is always more interesting and often illuminating to assumeexactly the opposite, and to see where that leads.

4 years ago

Message Copied

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

If prosperity is regarded as the reward of virtue it will be regarded as the symptom of virtue.

4 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Rewards Quotes , Wealth Quotes

For Tommy, on that hot and empty afternoon, was in a state of mind in which grown-up people go away and write books about their whole world, and stories about what it is like to be married, and plays about the important problems of modern times. Tommy, being only ten years old, was not able to do harm on this large and handsome scale.

4 years ago

Message Copied

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

Christianity, whatever else it is, is an explosion. Unless it is sensational there is simply no sense in it. Unless the Gospel sounds like a gun going off it has not been uttered at all.

4 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Gun Quotes , Sound Quotes

It is generally the man who is not ready to argue, who is ready to sneer.

4 years ago

Message Copied

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

The Sentimentalist, roughly speaking, is the man who wants to eat his cake and have it. He has no sense of honor about ideas; he will not see that one must pay for an idea as well as for anything else. He will have them all at once in one wild intellectual harem, no matter how much they quarrel and contradict each other.

4 years ago

Message Copied

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

It's not the world that's got so much worse but the news coverage that's got so much better.

4 years ago

Message Copied

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

The sincere love of books has nothing to do with cleverness or stupidity any more than any other sincere love. It is a quality of character, a freshness, a power of pleasure, a power of faith. A silly person may delight in reading masterpieces just as a silly person may delight in picking flowers. A fool may be in love with a poet as he may be in love with a woman.

4 years ago

Message Copied

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

4 years ago

Message Copied

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

Truths turn into dogmas the minute they are disputed.

4 years ago

Message Copied

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

The man who lives in contact with what he believes to be a living Church is a man always expecting to meet Plato and Shakespeare tomorrow at breakfast. He is always expecting to see some truth that he has never seen before.

4 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Plato Quotes , Believe Quotes

He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it.

4 years ago

Message Copied

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

If you know what a man's doing, get in front of him; but if you want to guess what he's doing keep behind him.

4 years ago

Message Copied

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

If the apple hit Newton’s nose, Newton’s nose hit the apple.

4 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Apples Quotes , Noses Quotes

A great deal of contemporary criticism reads to me like a man saying, 'Of course I do not like green cheese. I am very fond of brown sherry.

4 years ago

Message Copied

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