G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936)

G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936) English author & mystery novelist [more author details]
Showing quotations 1 to 30 of 34 total
Next Page -> - Read the works of G. K. Chesterton online at The Literature Page
"My country, right or wrong," is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, "My mother, drunk or sober."
G. K. Chesterton
- More quotations on: [Patriotism]
A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.
G. K. Chesterton
- More quotations on: [Books]
An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered.
G. K. Chesterton
Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere.
G. K. Chesterton
- More quotations on: [Art]
By a curious confusion, many modern critics have passed from the proposition that a masterpiece may be unpopular to the other proposition that unless it is unpopular it cannot be a masterpiece.
G. K. Chesterton
Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up.
G. K. Chesterton
Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.
G. K. Chesterton
I believe in getting into hot water; it keeps you clean.
G. K. Chesterton
I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.
G. K. Chesterton
- More quotations on: [Success] [Advice]
I say that a man must be certain of his morality for the simple reason that he has to suffer for it.
G. K. Chesterton
- More quotations on: [Morality]
If there were no God, there would be no Atheists.
G. K. Chesterton
- More quotations on: [Atheism]
It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong.
G. K. Chesterton
Journalism largely consists of saying 'Lord Jones is Dead' to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive.
G. K. Chesterton
- More quotations on: [Journalism]
Man seems to be capable of great virtues but not of small virtues; capable of defying his torturer but not of keeping his temper.
G. K. Chesterton
Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.
G. K. Chesterton
- More quotations on: [Music] [Food]
Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.
G. K. Chesterton
- More quotations on: [Poetry]
The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.
G. K. Chesterton
The most astonishing thing about miracles is that they happen.
G. K. Chesterton
The people who are the most bigoted are the people who have no convictions at all.
G. K. Chesterton
The thing I hate about an argument is that it always interrupts a discussion.
G. K. Chesterton
- More quotations on: [Argument]
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.
G. K. Chesterton
- More quotations on: [Books]
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.
G. K. Chesterton
You can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it.
G. K. Chesterton
There are no wise few. Every aristocracy that has ever existed has behaved, in all essential points, exactly like a small mob.
G. K. Chesterton, "Heretics", 1905
All slang is a metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry.
G. K. Chesterton, Defendant (1901)
- More quotations on: [Poetry]
Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.
G. K. Chesterton, Defendant (1901)
The rich are the scum of the earth in every country.
G. K. Chesterton, Flying Inn (1914)
- More quotations on: [Money]
There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person.
G. K. Chesterton, Heretics (1905)
The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits.
G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
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 the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.
G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy