Quotes by Gilbert K. Chesterton - AI Generated Quotes

Gilbert K. Chesterton

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.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

age

All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

alone

Man does not live by soap alone and hygiene, or even health, is not much good unless you can take a healthy view of it or, better still, feel a healthy indifference to it.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

alone

There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

architecture

All architecture is great architecture after sunset perhaps architecture is really a nocturnal art, like the art of fireworks.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

architecture

I was planning to go into architecture. But when I arrived, architecture was filled up. Acting was right next to it, so I signed up for acting instead.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

architecture

Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

art

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.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

art

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

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

art

All architecture is great architecture after sunset perhaps architecture is really a nocturnal art, like the art of fireworks.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

art

I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

best

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

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

best

All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

change

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

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

courage

The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

courage

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

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

education

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

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

education

Education is the period during which you are being instructed by somebody you do not know, about something you do not want to know.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

education

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

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

education

Without education we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

education

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.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

experience

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

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

experience

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

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

faith

The family is the test of freedom because the family is the only thing that the free man makes for himself and by himself.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

family

The family is the test of freedom because the family is the only thing that the free man makes for himself and by himself.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

freedom

It is not funny that anything else should fall down only that a man should fall down. Why do we laugh? Because it is a gravely religious matter: it is the Fall of Man. Only man can be absurd: for only man can be dignified.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

funny

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?

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

god

We make our friends we make our enemies but God makes our next door neighbour.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

god

Man is an exception, whatever else he is. If he is not the image of God, then he is a disease of the dust. If it is not true that a divine being fell, then we can only say that one of the animals went entirely off its head.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

god

White... is not a mere absence of colour it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black... God paints in many colours but He never paints so gorgeously, I had almost said so gaudily, as when He paints in white.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

god

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.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

god

Men always talk about the most important things to perfect strangers. In the perfect stranger we perceive man himself the image of a God is not disguised by resemblances to an uncle or doubts of wisdom of a mustache.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

god

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.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

good

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

good

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

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.

All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.

Man does not live by soap alone and hygiene, or even health, is not much good unless you can take a healthy view of it or, better still, feel a healthy indifference to it.

There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.

All architecture is great architecture after sunset perhaps architecture is really a nocturnal art, like the art of fireworks.

I was planning to go into architecture. But when I arrived, architecture was filled up. Acting was right next to it, so I signed up for acting instead.

Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.

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.

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

All architecture is great architecture after sunset perhaps architecture is really a nocturnal art, like the art of fireworks.

I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.

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

All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.

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

The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it.

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

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

Education is the period during which you are being instructed by somebody you do not know, about something you do not want to know.

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

Without education we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.

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.

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

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

The family is the test of freedom because the family is the only thing that the free man makes for himself and by himself.

The family is the test of freedom because the family is the only thing that the free man makes for himself and by himself.

It is not funny that anything else should fall down only that a man should fall down. Why do we laugh? Because it is a gravely religious matter: it is the Fall of Man. Only man can be absurd: for only man can be dignified.

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?

We make our friends we make our enemies but God makes our next door neighbour.

Man is an exception, whatever else he is. If he is not the image of God, then he is a disease of the dust. If it is not true that a divine being fell, then we can only say that one of the animals went entirely off its head.

White... is not a mere absence of colour it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black... God paints in many colours but He never paints so gorgeously, I had almost said so gaudily, as when He paints in white.

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.

Men always talk about the most important things to perfect strangers. In the perfect stranger we perceive man himself the image of a God is not disguised by resemblances to an uncle or doubts of wisdom of a mustache.

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.

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

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.

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

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