G. K. Chesterton

Quotes

• “You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera and grace before the play and p...”
• “He who lives in the future lives in a featureless blank he lives in impersonality he lives in Nirvana. The past is dem...”
• “The historic glory of America lies in the fact that it is the one nation that was founded like a church. That is it was...”
• “The word 'good' has many meanings. For example if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards ...”
• “Happy is he who still loves something he loved in the nursery: He has not been broken in two by time he is not two men ...”
• “It matters very little whether a man is discontented in the name of pessimism or progress if his discontent does in fac...”
• “A man must love a thing very much if he not only practises it without any hope of fame and money but even practises it ...”
• “There is nothing the matter with Americans except their ideals. The real American is all right it is the ideal American...”
• “Merely having an open mind is nothing. The object of opening the mind as of opening the mouth is to shut it again on s...”
• “Forgiving means to pardon the unpardonable faith means believing the unbelievable and hoping means to hope when things...”
• “The perplexity of life arises from there being too many interesting things in it for us to be interested properly in any...”
• “Large organization is loose organization. Nay it would be almost as true to say that organization is always disorganiza...”
• “I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act but I do believe in a fate that falls on men unless they ...”
• “The Bible tells us to love our neighbors and also to love our enemies probably because they are generally the same peo...”
• “True contentment... is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. It is arduous and it is rare.”
• “The mind that finds its way to wild places is the poet's but the mind that never finds its way back is the lunatic's.”
• “Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die.”
• “Democracy means government by the uneducated while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.”
• “A great city is the place to escape the true drama of provincial life and find solace in fantasy.”
• “The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life in order to keep it.”
• “When people cease to believe in God they don't believe in nothing they believe in anything.”
• “I am not absent-minded. It is the presence of mind that makes me unaware of everything else.”
• “Is dishwater dull? Naturalists with microscopes have told me that it teems with quiet fun.”
• “Do not free a camel of the burden of his hump you may be freeing him from being a camel.”
• “One may understand the cosmos but never the ego the self is more distant than any star.”
• “Facts as facts do not always create a spirit of reality because reality is a spirit.”
• “Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances which we know to be desperate.”
• “True contentment is the power of getting of any situation all that there is in it.”
• “We make our friends we make our enemies but God makes our next-door neighbour.”
• “To be clever enough to get all that money one must be stupid enough to want it.”
• “It isn't that they can't see the solution it's that they can't see the problem.”
• “A tragedy means always a man's struggle with that which is stronger than man.”
• “A man does not know what he is saying until he knows what he is not saying.”
• “Happiness is a mystery like religion and it should never be rationalized.”
• “One sees great things from the valley only small things from the peak.”
• “Men always talk about the most important things to perfect strangers.”
• “Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.”
• “The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.”
• “Artistic temperament is a disease that afflicts amateurs.”
• “The classes that wash most are those that work least.”
• “Psychoanalysis is confession without absolution.”
• “Angels fly because they take themselves lightly.”
• “Acceptance is the truest kinship with humanity.”
• “To be simple is the best thing in the world.”
• “The true object of all human life is play.”
• “No man can be merry unless he is serious.”
• “Leisure is being allowed to do nothing.”
• “The true object of human life is play.”
• “Silence is the unbearable repartee.”
• “New roads new ruts.”