Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

There again," said Syme irritably, "what is there poetical about being in revolt? You might as well say that it is poetical to be sea-sick. Being sick is a revolt. Both being sick and being rebellious may be the wholesome thing on certain desperate occasions; but I'm hanged if I can see why they are poetical...It is things going right," he cried, "that is poetical! Our digestions, for instance, going sacredly and silently right, that is the foundation of all poetry...the most poetical thing in the world is not being sick.

5 years ago

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Sea Quotes , Sick Quotes

The hands that had made the sun and stars were too small to reach the huge heads of the cattle. Upon this paradox, we might almost say upon this jest, all the literature of our faith is founded.

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There is only one thing that stands in our midst, attenuated and threatened, but enthroned in some power like a ghost of the Middle Ages: the Trade Unions.

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A woman uses her intelligence to find reasons to support her intuition.

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I represent the jolly mass of mankind. I am the happy and reckless Christian.

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I may not practice what I preach but God forbid I should preach what I practice

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I've searched all the parks in all the cities - and found no statues of Committees.

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Dipsomaniac and the abstainer are not only both mistaken, but they both make the same mistake. They both regard wine as a drug and not as a drink.

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

Odd, isn't it, that a thief and a vagabond should repent, when so many who are rich and secure remain hard and frivolous, and without fruit for God or man?

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

Laughter has something in it common with the ancient words of faith and inspiration; it unfreezes pride and unwinds secrecy; it makes people forget themselves in the presence of something greater than themselves.

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The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice.

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Wit is a sword; it is meant to make people feel the point as well as see it.

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It is much easier to write a good Times leading article than a good joke in Punch.

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To be born into this earth is to be born into uncongenial surroundings, hence to be born into a romance.

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Any man who preaches real love is bound to beget hate. It is as true of democratic fraternity as a divine love; sham love ends in compromise and common philosophy; but real love has always ended in bloodshed.

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

I would not say that old men grow wise, for men never grow wise; and many old men retain a very attractive childishness and cheerful innocence. Elderly people are often much more romantic than younger people, and sometimes even more adventurous, having begun to realize how many things they do not know.

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

If there is one fact we really can prove, from the history that we really do know, it is that despotism can be a development, often a late development and very often indeed the end of societies that have been highly democratic. A despotism may almost be defined as a tired democracy. As fatigue falls on a community, the citizens are less inclined for that eternal vigilance which has truly been called the price of liberty; and they prefer to arm only one single sentinel to watch the city while they sleep.

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With every step of our lives we enter into the middle of some story which we are certain to misunderstand.

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While once it was the rank and file that cheered with all the partisan passions at their heights, today it is the party leaders who are cheering themselves; and all by themselves. The mob that is their audience is in one vast universal trance, thinking about something else.

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Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Leadership Quotes , Cheer Quotes