Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

All slang is metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Poetry, Metaphor, Slang

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

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Found, Parks, Statues, Cities

Men feel that cruelty to the poor is a kind of cruelty to animals. They never feel that it is an injustice to equals; nay it is treachery to comrades.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Injustice, Never, Cruelty, Treachery

A stiff apology is a second insult... The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Want, Been, Stiff, Injured

Artistic temperament is the disease that afflicts amateurs.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Disease, Temperament, Amateur

Fable is more historical than fact, because fact tells us about one man and fable tells us about a million men.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Fact, More, About, Fable

We are justified in enforcing good morals, for they belong to all mankind; but we are not justified in enforcing good manners, for good manners always mean our own manners.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Mankind, Always, Belong, Justified

Some men never feel small, but these are the few men who are.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Small, Never, Some, Few Men

The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Feet, New Year's, Year, Ears

'My country, right or wrong' is a thing no patriot would ever think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying 'My mother, drunk or sober.'

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Patriotism, Think, Country, Patriot

Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Art, Perfect, Bed, Ceiling

The only way to be sure of catching a train is to miss the one before it.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Sure, Before, Catching, Miss

There is but an inch of difference between a cushioned chamber and a padded cell.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Difference, Chamber, Padded, Cushioned

Without education we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Educated, Educated People, Deadly

Ritual will always mean throwing away something: destroying our corn or wine upon the altar of our gods.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Always, Away, Ritual, Altar

We call a man a bigot or a slave of dogma because he is a thinker who has thought thoroughly and to a definite end.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Thought, Dogma, Thoroughly, Bigot

Nothing is poetical if plain daylight is not poetical; and no monster should amaze us if the normal man does not amaze.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Normal, Daylight, Plain, Poetical

Youth is the period in which a man can be hopeless. The end of every episode is the end of the world. But the power of hoping through everything, the knowledge that the soul survives its adventures, that great inspiration comes to the middle-aged.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Through, Which, Period, Hopeless

White... is not a mere absence of colour; it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black... God paints in many colours; but He never paints so gorgeously, I had almost said so gaudily, as when He paints in white.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Absence, Had, Almost, Shining

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Politics, Oligarchy, Means, Ancestors

All architecture is great architecture after sunset; perhaps architecture is really a nocturnal art, like the art of fireworks.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Art, Architecture, Nocturnal, Fireworks

The word 'good' has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Good, Grandmother, Hundred, A Good Man

The true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Life, Play, Task, Object

The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Mind, Mouth, Shut, Object

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

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Righteous, Indignation, Wrong Things

Men always talk about the most important things to perfect strangers. In the perfect stranger we perceive man himself; the image of a God is not disguised by resemblances to an uncle or doubts of wisdom of a mustache.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Always, Doubts, Image, Mustache

There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and the tired man who wants a book to read.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Deal, Read, Eager, Between

Never invoke the gods unless you really want them to appear. It annoys them very much.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Never, Very, Appear, Invoke

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, but one, and he has saved not only his soul but his life.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Happiness, Broken, Still, Nursery

Science in the modern world has many uses; its chief use, however, is to provide long words to cover the errors of the rich.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Chief, Use, However, Errors

And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Rain, Rather, Your, Rains

The perplexity of life arises from there being too many interesting things in it for us to be interested properly in any of them.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Interesting Things, Them, Arises

An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Adventure, Rightly, Wrongly

An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Adventure, Considered, Wrongly

The family is the test of freedom; because the family is the only thing that the free man makes for himself and by himself.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Family, Test, Himself, Free Man

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

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Keep, His, Even, Careless

When we really worship anything, we love not only its clearness but its obscurity. We exult in its very invisibility.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Love, Only, Very, Obscurity

Let a man walk ten miles steadily on a hot summer's day along a dusty English road, and he will soon discover why beer was invented.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Discover, Will, Why, Steadily

Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Man, Virtue, Convictions, Tolerance

Chastity does not mean abstention from sexual wrong; it means something flaming, like Joan of Arc.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Means, Flaming, Joan, Arc

It is not funny that anything else should fall down; only that a man should fall down. Why do we laugh? Because it is a gravely religious matter: it is the Fall of Man. Only man can be absurd: for only man can be dignified.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Why, Religious, Gravely

Journalism largely consists of saying 'Lord Jones is Dead' to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Never, Alive, Largely, Journalism

Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers is another.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

World, Fiction, Another, Journalism

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.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Reason, Conservative, Own, Conserve

Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Music, Dinner, Cook, Violinist

You can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Revolution, Never, Must, Establish

There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Exist, Uninterested, Subject, Uninteresting

Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Art, Limitation, Most, Frame

Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Love, Religion, More, Affair

Being 'contented' ought to mean in English, as it does in French, being pleased. Being content with an attic ought not to mean being unable to move from it and resigned to living in it; it ought to mean appreciating all there is in such a position.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Living, Contented, Move, Resigned

The only way of catching a train I have ever discovered is to miss the train before.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Discovered, Catching, Ever, Train

What affects men sharply about a foreign nation is not so much finding or not finding familiar things; it is rather not finding them in the familiar place.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Nation, Rather, Sharply, Familiar Things

Buddhism is not a creed, it is a doubt.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Doubt, Creed, Buddhism

Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Educated, Badly, Means, Aristocracy

The most dangerous criminal now is the entirely lawless modern philosopher. Compared to him, burglars and bigamists are essentially moral men.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Him, Dangerous, Philosopher, Criminal

Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Wish, May, Perfectly, Thieves

All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Change, Idea, Based, Torrent

The vulgar man is always the most distinguished, for the very desire to be distinguished is vulgar.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Always, Most, Very, Distinguished

The purpose of Compulsory Education is to deprive the common people of their commonsense.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Education, Common, Compulsory

I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Respect, Doing, Very, Exact

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

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Could, Things, Which, Presume

Large organization is loose organization. Nay, it would be almost as true to say that organization is always disorganization.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Always, Large, Would, Loose

In matters of truth the fact that you don't want to publish something is, nine times out of ten, a proof that you ought to publish it.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Fact, Want, Nine, Ought

Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf; is better than a whole loaf.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Bread, Half, Whole, Loaf

What people call impartiality may simply mean indifference, and what people call partiality may simply mean mental activity.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Call, May, Partiality, Impartiality

Coincidences are spiritual puns.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Spiritual, Coincidences, Puns

Love means to love that which is unlovable; or it is no virtue at all.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Love, Which, Means, Unlovable

Those thinkers who cannot believe in any gods often assert that the love of humanity would be in itself sufficient for them; and so, perhaps, it would, if they had it.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Love, Gods, Thinkers, Assert

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Truth, Bad, Tells, Novel

With any recovery from morbidity there must go a certain healthy humiliation.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Healthy, Go, Must, Humiliation

Once I planned to write a book of poems entirely about the things in my pocket. But I found it would be too long; and the age of the great epics is past.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Book, Past, About, Epics

The ordinary scientific man is strictly a sentimentalist. He is a sentimentalist in this essential sense, that he is soaked and swept away by mere associations.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Away, Associations, Swept, Strictly

The trouble with always trying to preserve the health of the body is that it is so difficult to do without destroying the health of the mind.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Health, Mind, Always, Destroying

Man seems to be capable of great virtues but not of small virtues; capable of defying his torturer but not of keeping his temper.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Small, His, Keeping, Defying

Education is the period during which you are being instructed by somebody you do not know, about something you do not want to know.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Education, Which, Period, Instructed

A yawn is a silent shout.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Silent, Shout, Yawn

Man is an exception, whatever else he is. If he is not the image of God, then he is a disease of the dust. If it is not true that a divine being fell, then we can only say that one of the animals went entirely off its head.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Exception, Disease, Image, Entirely

The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Country, Set, Foreign Land, Object

People generally quarrel because they cannot argue.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Because, Argue, Cannot, Quarrel

If I can put one touch of rosy sunset into the life of any man or woman, I shall feel that I have worked with God.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Woman, Touch, Shall, Sunset

One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Never, Star, May, Cosmos

The cosmos is about the smallest hole that a man can hide his head in.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Hide, Head, Hole, Cosmos

Do not free a camel of the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

May, His, Freeing, Hump

We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next door neighbour.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Door, Next, Makes, Neighbour

The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Love, Lost, May, Realize

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Poor, Always, Badly, Governed

Brave men are all vertebrates; they have their softness on the surface and their toughness in the middle.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Men, Veterans Day, Middle, Toughness

The greenhorn is the ultimate victor in everything; it is he that gets the most out of life.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Everything, Most, Ultimate, Victor

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Strong, Die, Means, Taking

Man does not live by soap alone; and hygiene, or even health, is not much good unless you can take a healthy view of it or, better still, feel a healthy indifference to it.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Health, Indifference, Still, Hygiene

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Thankful, Thought, Maintain, Wonder

True contentment is a thing as active as agriculture. It is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. It is arduous and it is rare.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Contentment, Active, Any, Arduous

The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Travel, See, Traveler, Tourist

The honest poor can sometimes forget poverty. The honest rich can never forget it.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Forget, Never, Poor, Never Forget

It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Test, About, Whether, Joke

And they that rule in England, in stately conclaves met, alas, alas for England they have no graves as yet.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

England, Rule, Stately, Alas

A new philosophy generally means in practice the praise of some old vice.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

New, Some, Means, Philosophy

The present condition of fame is merely fashion.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Fame, Condition, Merely, Present

The mere brute pleasure of reading the sort of pleasure a cow must have in grazing.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Reading, Pleasure, Mere, Grazing

The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Poetry, Silent, Been, Poets

The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Love, Bible, Also, To Love

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

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Intelligence, Woman, Reasons, Uses

No man who worships education has got the best out of education... Without a gentle contempt for education no man's education is complete.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Education, Best, Worships, Complete

The simplification of anything is always sensational.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Always, Sensational, Simplification

A man who says that no patriot should attack the war until it is over... is saying no good son should warn his mother of a cliff until she has fallen.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Cliff, Over, Patriot, Attack

Cruelty is, perhaps, the worst kid of sin. Intellectual cruelty is certainly the worst kind of cruelty.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Cruelty, Perhaps, Certainly, Worst Kind

One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Great, Small Things, Small, Valley

The fatal metaphor of progress, which means leaving things behind us, has utterly obscured the real idea of growth, which means leaving things inside us.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Behind, Which, Means, Leaving

A teacher who is not dogmatic is simply a teacher who is not teaching.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Teacher, Teaching, Dogmatic, Simply

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

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Education, Generation, Simply

There is nothing the matter with Americans except their ideals. The real American is all right; it is the ideal American who is all wrong.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Nothing, Ideal, Ideals, Wrong

A man does not know what he is saying until he knows what he is not saying.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Know, Does, Until, Saying

It is as healthy to enjoy sentiment as to enjoy jam.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Enjoy, Healthy, Sentiment, Jam

I regard golf as an expensive way of playing marbles.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Sports, Golf, Regard, Marbles

New roads; new ruts.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Roads, New, Ruts

The aim of life is appreciation; there is no sense in not appreciating things; and there is no sense in having more of them if you have less appreciation of them.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Aim, No Sense, Having, Appreciation

Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Literature, Fiction, Luxury

The man who throws a bomb is an artist, because he prefers a great moment to everything.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Man, Artist, Because, Throws

There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Imagination, Rules, Castle, No Rules

Experience which was once claimed by the aged is now claimed exclusively by the young.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Young, Once, Which, Aged

How you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Think, Will, How, Determines

When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Thankful, Critical, Take, Granted

When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Grateful, Christmas, Why, Filling

I was planning to go into architecture. But when I arrived, architecture was filled up. Acting was right next to it, so I signed up for acting instead.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Go, Next, Filled, Signed

If I had only one sermon to preach it would be a sermon against pride.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Against, Preach, Would, Pride

To be clever enough to get all that money, one must be stupid enough to want it.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Money, Stupid, Get, Clever

Half a truth is better than no politics.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Politics, Better, Half, Truth Is

Happiness is a mystery, like religion, and should never be rationalised.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Happiness, Never, Like, Mystery

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

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Nothing, See, About, Sort

Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Art, Morality, Like, Somewhere

There is a road from the eye to heart that does not go through the intellect.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Eye, Through, Intellect, Heart

If you do not understand a man you cannot crush him. And if you do understand him, very probably you will not.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Understand, Will, Very, Crush

A businessman is the only man who is forever apologizing for his occupation.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

His, Occupation, Apologizing, Businessman

Drink because you are happy, but never because you are miserable.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Happy, Never, Because, Miserable

The only defensible war is a war of defense.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

War, Only, Defense

Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Been, Tried, Wanting, Christianity

I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Fate, Act, However, Falls

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Been, Wanting, Ideal, Tried

If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Doing, Worth, Thing, Badly

It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is that they can't see the problem.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Solution, See, Problem

Marriage is an adventure, like going to war.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Marriage, Like, Going, Adventure

Women prefer to talk in twos, while men prefer to talk in threes.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Men, Talk, While, Prefer

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