Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

Pessimism is not in being tired of evil but in being tired of good. Despair does not lie in being weary of suffering, but in being weary of joy. It is when for some reason or other good things in a society no longer work that the society begins to decline; when its food does not feed, when its cures do not cure, when its blessings refuse to bless.

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

Such professions as the soldier and the lawyer ... give ample opportunity for crimes but not much for mere illusions. ... If you have lost a battle you cannot believe you have won it; if your client is hanged you cannot pretend that you have gotten him off.

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The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it.

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You may think a crime horrible because you could never commit it. I think it is horrible because I could commit it.

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Political Economy means that everybody except politicians must be economical.

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He walked by instinct along one white road, on which early birds hopped and sang, and found himself outside a fenced garden. There he saw the sister of Gregory, the girl with the gold-red hair, cutting lilac before breakfast, with the great unconscious gravity of a girl.

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Individually, men may present a more or less rational appearance, eating, sleeping, and scheming. But humanity a a whole is changeful, mystical, fickle, delightful. Men are men, but Man is a woman.

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We are like the penny, because we have the image of the king stamped on us, the divine king.

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The highest and noblest thing that history can be is a good story.

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Who would condescend to strike down the mere things that he does not fear? Who would debase himself to be merely brave, like any common prizefighter? Who would stoop to be fearless--like a tree? Fight the thing that you fear. You remember the old tale of the English clergyman who gave the last rites to the brigand of Sicily, and how on his death-bed the great robber said, 'I can give you no money, but I can give you advice for a lifetime: your thumb on the blade, and strike upwards.' So I say to you, strike upwards, if you strike at the stars.

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It has been often said, very truly, that religion is the thing that makes the ordinary man feel extraordinary; it is an equally important truth that religion is the thing that makes the extraordinary man feel ordinary.

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When giving treats to friends or children, give them what they like, emphatically not what is good for them.

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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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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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Saint George he was for England, And before he killed the dragon he drank a pint of English ale out of an English flagon.

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People who make history know nothing about history. You can see that in the sort of history they make.

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I left the fairy tales lying on the floor of the nursery, and I have not found any books so sensible since.

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If you convey to a woman that something ought to be done, there is always a dreadful danger that she will suddenly do it.

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And all over the world, the old literature, the popular literature, is the same. It consists of very dignified sorrow and very undignified fun. Its sad tales are of broken hearts; its happy tales are of broken heads.

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In truth the Church is too unique to prove herself unique. For most popular and easy proof is by parallel; and here there is no parallel.

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