Quotes By Gilbert K. Chesterton

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

The present condition of fame is merely fashion.

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

Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.

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.

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

To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.

Coincidences are spiritual puns.

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

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.

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.

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

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?

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.

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

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

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

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

New roads; new ruts.

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