E K Chesterton Quotes

#1. I am sure that if triangles ever were loved, they were loved for being triangular.

G.K. Chesterton

#2. It is well sometimes to half understand a poem in the same manner that we half understand the world.

G.K. Chesterton

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

G.K. Chesterton

#4. I should favour anything that would increase the present enormous authority of women and their creative action in their own homes. The average woman ... is a despot; the average man is a serf.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

#5. Architecture approaches nearer than any other art to being irrevocable because it is so difficult to get rid of.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

#6. It is true that I am of an older fashion; much that I love has been destroyed or sent into exile.

G.K. Chesterton

#7. The primary paradox that man is superior to all the things around him and yet is at their mercy.

G.K. Chesterton

#8. There's a lot of difference between listening and hearing.

G.K. Chesterton

#9. It might be questioned whether hammering is more of a strain on the attention because it may go on for ever, or because it may stop at any minute.

G.K. Chesterton

#10. 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

#11. What is the good of telling a community that it has every liberty except the liberty to make laws? The liberty to make laws is what constitutes a free people.

G.K. Chesterton

#12. Agnostic is the Greek word, for the Latin word, for ignorant

Gilbert K. Chesterton

#13. If a rhinoceros were to enter this restaurant now, there is no denying he would have great power here. But I should be the first to rise and assure him that he had no authority whatever.

G.K. Chesterton

#14. Our age is obviously the Nonsense Age; the wiser sort of nonsense being provided for the children and the sillier sort of nonsense for the grown-up people.

G.K. Chesterton

#15. The danger of loss of faith in God is not that one will believe in nothing, but rather that one will believe in anything.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

#16. All slang is metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

#17. The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn't; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht.

G.K. Chesterton

#18. That wild word, "Moor Eeffoc," is the motto of all effective realism; it is the masterpiece of the good realistic principle - the principle that the most fantastic thing of all is often the precise fact.

G.K. Chesterton

#19. And I offer this book with the heartiest sentiments to all the jolly people who hate what I write, and regard it (very justly, for all I know), as a piece of poor clowning or a single tiresome joke.

G.K. Chesterton

#20. 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

#21. But since he stood for England And knew what England means, Unless you give him bacon You must not give him beans.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

#22. A citizen can hardly distinguish between a tax and a fine, except that the fine is generally much lighter.

G.K. Chesterton

#23. The worst moment for an atheist is when he feels a profound sense of gratitude and has no one to thank.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

#24. In the glad old days, before the rise of modern morbidities ... it used to be thought a disadvantage to be misunderstood.

G.K. Chesterton

#25. It is ludicrous to suppose that the more sceptical we are the more we see good in everything. It is clear that the more we are certain what good is, the more we shall see good in everything.

G.K. Chesterton

#26. Just at present you only see the tree by the light of the lamp. I wonder when you would ever see the lamp by the light of the tree.

G.K. Chesterton

#27. I have a suspicion that you are all mad,' said Dr. Renard, smiling sociably; 'but God forbid that madness should in any way interrupt friendship.

G.K. Chesterton

#28. Eugenics, as discussed, evidently means the control of some men
over the marriage and unmarriage of others; and probably means the
control of the few over the marriage and unmarriage of the many

G.K. Chesterton

#29. Dear Sir: Regarding your article 'What's Wrong with the World?' I am. Yours truly,

G.K. Chesterton

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

G.K. Chesterton