Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes - Page 38

• And it is always the humble man who talks too much; the proud man watches himself too closely.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Humble, Men, Watches

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.148, Simon and Schuster

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• Every politician is emphatically a promising politician.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Politician

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• It was the people who did not care who filled the world with fire and oppression. It was the hands of the indifferent that lit the faggots; it was the hands of the indifferent that turned the rack.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Fire, Hands, People

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.241, Simon and Schuster

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• Research is the search of people who don't know what they want.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  People, Research, Want

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• The humorous look of children is perhaps the most endearing of all the bonds that hold the Cosmos together.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Children, Humorous, Together

  "The Defendant". Book by G. K. Chesterton, 1901.

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• The perils, rewards, punishments, and fulfillments of an adventure must be real, or the adventure is only a shifting and heartless nightmare. If I bet I must be made to pay, or there is no poetry in betting. If I challenge I must be made to fight, or there is no poetry in challenging. If I vow to be faithful I must be cursed when I am unfaithful, or there is no fun vowing.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Fun, Real, Adventure

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• The truth is that it is our attitude towards children that is right, and our attitude towards grown-up people that is wrong.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Children, Attitude, People

  "The Defendant". Book by G. K. Chesterton, 1901.

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• A great curse has fallen upon modern life with the discovery of the vastness of the word Education.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Discovery, Modern Life, Vastness

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• Instead of the machine being a giant to which the man is the pygmy, we must at last reverse the proportions until man is a giant to whom the machine is the toy.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Men, Giants, Machines

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• For Scotland has a double dose of the poison called heredity; the sense of blood in the aristocrat, the sense of doom in the Calvinist.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Blood, Scotland, Poison

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• There is more to life than increasing its speed. Gandhi gave my life to become the person I am right now. Was it worth it? Richard Bach Life exists for the love of music or beautiful things.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Beautiful, Music Love, Speed

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• Our digestions, going sacredly and silently right, that is the foundation of all poetry.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Foundation, Digestion

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.146, Simon and Schuster

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• [Paradox is] truth standing on its head to gain attention.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Attention, Gains, Paradox

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• THERE are no wise few; for in all men rages the folly of the Fall. Take your strongest, happiest, handsomest, best born, best bred, best instructed men on earth and give them special power for half an hour and because they are men they will begin to [perform] badly.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Wise, Fall, Men

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• I am a bad reporter because everything seems to me worth reporting; and a bad reviewer because every sentence in every book suggests a separate essay.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Book, Essays, Sentences

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• If, therefore, nonsense is really to be the literature of the future, it must have its own version of the Cosmos to offer; the world must not only be tragic, romantic, and religious, it must be nonsensical also.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Religious, Cosmos, Literature

  "The Defendant". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, 1901.

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• The men of the clique live together because they have the same kind of soul, and their narrowness is a narrowness of spiritual coherence and contentment, like that which exists in hell . . .

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Spiritual, Men, Soul

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.194, Simon and Schuster

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• A third-class carriage is a community, while a first-class carriage is a place of wild hermits.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Class, Community, Firsts

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (1909). “Heretics”

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• The great intellectual tradition that comes down to us from the past was never interrupted or lost through such trifles as the sack of Rome, the triumph of Attila, or all the barbarian invasions of the Dark Ages. It was lost after the introduction of printing, the discovery of America, the founding of the Royal Society, and all the enlightenment of the Renaissance and the modern world. It was there, if anywhere, that there was lost or impatiently snapped the long thin delicate thread that had descended from distant antiquity; the thread of that unusual human hobby: the habit of thinking.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Dark, Thinking, Past

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• 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."

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Long, Metaphysical, Damn

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.93, Simon and Schuster

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• ...a figure of speech can often get into a crack too small for a definition.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Cracks, Speech, Definitions

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.20, Simon and Schuster

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• The Christian pities men because they are dying, and the Buddhist pities them because they are living. The Christian is sorry for what damages the life of a man; but the Buddhist is sorry for him because he is alive.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Christian, Buddhist, Sorry

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• There is only one reason an intelligent person doesn't believe in miracles. He or she believes in materialism.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Believe, Intelligent, Miracle

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• It is unpardonable conceit not to laugh at your own jokes. Joking is undignified; that is why it is so good for one's soul. Do not fancy you can be a detached wit and avoid being a buffoon; you cannot. If you are the Court Jester you must be the Court Fool.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Laughing, Soul, Fancy

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• Every true artist feels that he is touching transcendental truths; that his images are shadows of things seen through the veil.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Artist, Touching, Shadow

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