Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes - Page 36

• A mystic is a man who separates heaven and earth even if he enjoys them both.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Men, Heaven, Earth

  "William Blake". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, 1920.

  4 Copy quote

• I have little doubt that when St. George had killed the dragon he was heartily afraid of the princess.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Love, Princess, Dragons

  4 Copy quote

• Women are the only realists; their whole object in life is to pit their realism against the extravagant, excessive, and occasionally drunken idealism of men.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Love, Men, Pits

  6 Copy quote

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

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Love, Men, Decline

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.402, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• Well, if I am not drunk, I am mad," replied Syme with perfect calm; "but I trust I can behave like a gentleman in either condition.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Drunk, Mad, Perfect

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.152, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• The Frenchman works until he can play. The American works until he can’t play; and then thanks the devil, his master, that he is donkey enough to die in harness. But the Englishman, as he has since become, works until he can pretend that he never worked at all.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Play, Devil, Thanks

  10 Copy quote

• The modern materialists are not permitted to doubt; they are forbidden to believe.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Believe, Doubt, Modern

  "G.K. Chesterton: Philosopher Without Portfolio". Book by Quentin Lauer (p. 32), 1988.

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Stars, Fighting, Giving

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.201, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• Americans have a taste for…rocking-chairs. A flippant critic might suggest that they select rocking-chairs so that, even when they are sitting down, they need not be sitting still. Something of this restlessness in the race may really be involved in the matter; but I think the deeper significance of the rocking-chair may still be found in the deeper symbolism of the rocking-horse. I think there is behind all this fresh and facile use of wood a certain spirit that is childish in the good sense of the word; something that is innocent, and easily pleased.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Horse, Thinking, Race

  8 Copy quote

• Men did not love Rome because she was great. She was great because they had loved her.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Men, Rome

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.49, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• Even a bad shot is dignified when he accepts a duel.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Accepting, Shots

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.4, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• As regards moral courage, then, it is not so much that the public schools support it feebly, as that they suppress it firmly.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  School, Support, Moral

  4 Copy quote

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

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Humility, Pride, Impossible

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.21, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• You cannot grow a beard in a moment of passion.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Truth, Passion, Beard

  "Whisker Wars: TV Review" by David Knowles, www.hollywoodreporter.com. August 4, 2011.

  11 Copy quote

• Where does a wise man hide a leaf? In the forest. But what does he do if there is no forest? He grows a forest to hide it in.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Wise, Men, Doe

  "The Innocence of Father Brown". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, 1911.

  4 Copy quote

• Be careful how you suggest things to me. For there is in me a madness which goes beyond martyrdom, the madness of an utterly idle man.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Men, Madness, Be Careful

  4 Copy quote

• All we know of the Missing Link is that he is missing - and he won't be missed either.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Missing, Links, Knows

  4 Copy quote

• We do not want joy and anger to neutralize each other and produce a surly contentment; we want a fiercer delight and a fiercer discontent. We have to feel the universe at once as an ogre's castle, to be stormed, and yet as our own cottage, to which we can return to at evening.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Joy, Contentment, Castles

  4 Copy quote

• In all legends men have thought of women as sublime separately but horrible in a herd.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Men, Sublime, Legends

  5 Copy quote

• It is quite easy to see why a legend is treated, and ought to be treated, more respectfully than a book of history. The legend is generally made by the majority of people in the village, who are sane. The book is generally written by the one man in the village who is mad.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Book, Men, People

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.33, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• What are we going to do?" asked the Professor. "At this moment," said Syme, with a scientific detachment, "I think we are going to smash into a lamppost.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Thinking, Moments, Detachment

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.250, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• I am the fool in this story, and no rebel shall hurl me from my throne.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Rebel, Thrones, Stories

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.6, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• I did try to found a little heresy of my own; and when I had put the last touches to it, I discovered that it was orthodoxy.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Trying, Littles, Lasts

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.7, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• And though St. John saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Vision, Monsters, Saws

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.10, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• Art is limitation; the essence of every picture is the frame. If you draw a giraffe, you must draw him with a long neck. If in your bold creative way you hold yourself free to draw a giraffe with a short neck, you will really find that you are not free to draw a giraffe.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Art, Essence, Long

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.28, Simon and Schuster

  7 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

C. S. Lewis

Hilaire Belloc

Arthur Conan Doyle

Charles Dickens

Agatha Christie

Dale Ahlquist

George MacDonald

J. R. R. Tolkien