Quotes By Gilbert K. Chesterton

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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.

People generally quarrel because they cannot argue.