Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

The man who kills a man kills a man. The man who kills himself kills all men. As far as he is concerned, he wipes out the world.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Men spoke much in my boyhood about restricted or ruined men of genius: and it was common to say that many a man was a Great Might-Have-Been. To me it's a more solid and startling fact that any man in the street is a Great Might-Not-Have-Been.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Literature and fiction are two entirely different things. Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

It is the beginning of all true criticism of our time to realize that it has really nothing to say, at the very moment when it has invented so tremendous a trumpet for saying it.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Marriage is a duel to the death which no man of honour should decline.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Exactly at the instant when hope ceases to be reasonable it begins to be useful.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Giving Up Quotes , Don't Give Up Quotes

Nothing is certain by uncertainty.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Certain Quotes

In the modern conflict between the Smile and the Laugh, I am all in favor of laughing. The recent stage of culture and criticism might very well be summed up as the men who smile criticizing the men who laugh.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

If man is not the image of God, then he is a disease of the dust.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

The whole order of things is as outrageous as any miracle which could presume to violate it.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Order Quotes , Miracle Quotes

The long words are not the hard words, it is the short words that are hard. There is much more metaphysical subtlety in the word "damn" than in the word "degeneration."

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Long Quotes , Metaphysical Quotes

Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes , Inspirational Quotes , Inspiring 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.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

There are many books which we think we have read when we have not. There are, at least, many that we think we remember when we do not. An original picture was, perhaps, imprinted upon the brain, but it has changed with our own changing minds. We only remember our remembrance.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Boyhood is a most complex and incomprehensible thing. Even when one has been through it, one does not understand what it was. A man can never quite understand a boy, even when he has been the boy.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

We do not need to get good laws to restrain bad people. We need to get good people to restrain us from bad laws.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

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

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

But there is in everything a reasonable division of labour. I have written the book, and nothing on earth would induce me to read it.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Unless a man becomes the enemy of an evil, he will not even become its slave but rather its champion.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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