G. K. Chesterton: Trending quotes

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G. K. Chesterton: 458 quotes19 likes

“Very few reputations are gained by unsullied virtue.”

G. K. Chesterton book The Innocence of Father Brown

The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) The Sins of Prince Saradine
The Father Brown Mystery Series (1910 - 1927)

“Our chiefs said 'Done,' and I did not deem it;
Our seers said 'Peace,' and it was not peace;
Earth will grow worse till men redeem it,
And wars more evil, ere all wars cease.”

G. K. Chesterton

A Song of Defeat (1910)

“A man looking at a hippopotamus may sometimes be tempted to regard a hippopotamus as an enormous mistake; but he is also bound to confess that a fortunate inferiority prevents him personally from making such mistakes.”

G. K. Chesterton Charles Dickens

Source: Charles Dickens (1906), Ch. 10 "The Great Dickens Characters"

“All things are from God; and above all, reason and imagination and the great gifts of the mind. They are good in themselves; and we must not altogether forget their origin even in their perversion.”

G. K. Chesterton

The Dagger with Wings (1926)

“I think that if they gave me leave, Within the world to stand, I would be good through all the day I spent in fairyland. They should not hear a word from me, Of selfishness or scorn, If only I could find the door, If only I were born.”

G. K. Chesterton

By the Babe Unborn poem, Delphi Works of G. K. Chesterton (Illustrated) <br class="br">Source: https://books.google.com.br/books?id=LtwZAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=pt-BR#v=onepage&q&f=false

“These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own.”

G. K. Chesterton

Illustrated London News (11 August 1928)

“A sober man may become a drunkard through being a coward. A brave man may become a coward through being a drunkard.”

G. K. Chesterton Charles Dickens

Source: Charles Dickens (1906), Ch. 8 "The Time of Transition"

“The world will never starve for want of wonders; but only for want of wonder.”

G. K. Chesterton book Tremendous Trifles

Tremendous Trifles (1909), Ch. 1.

“A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things but cannot receive great ones.”

G. K. Chesterton

Though sometimes misattributed to Chesterton, this is generally attributed to Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, with the first publication of this yet located is in a section of proverbs called "Diamond Dust" in Eliza Cook's Journal, No. 98 (15 March 1851), with the first attribution to Chesterfield as yet located in: Many Thoughts of Many Minds (1862) edited by Henry Southgate.
Misattributed

“The things that happen here do not seem to mean anything; they mean something somewhere else. Somewhere else retribution will come on the real offender. Here it often seems to fall on the wrong person.”

G. K. Chesterton book The Innocence of Father Brown

The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) The Sins of Prince Saradine
The Father Brown Mystery Series (1910 - 1927)

“The simplification of anything is always sensational.”

G. K. Chesterton

Varied Types (1903)

“For children are innocent and love justice, while most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy.”

G. K. Chesterton

The Coloured Lands (1938)

“But whenever one meets modern thinkers (as one often does) progressing toward a madhouse, one always finds, on inquiry, that they have just had a splendid escape from another madhouse. Thus, hundreds of people become Socialists, not because they have tried Socialism and found it nice, but because they have tried Individualism and found it particularly nasty.”

G. K. Chesterton

Alarms and Discursions (1910), 'The New House,' pp. 161-162

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

G. K. Chesterton book All Things Considered

"Spiritualism"
All Things Considered (1908)

“Prince, Bayard would have smashed his sword
To see the sort of knights you dub--
Is that the last of them — O Lord
Will someone take me to a pub?”

G. K. Chesterton

"A Ballade Of An Anti-puritan" http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/books/anti-puritan.html in The Book of Humorous Verse (1920) edited Carolyn Wells, p. 338

“When a politician is in opposition he is an expert on the means to some end; and when he is in office he is an expert on the obstacles to it.”

G. K. Chesterton

Illustrated London News (6 April 1918)

“I've searched all the parks in all the cities — and found no statues of Committees.”

G. K. Chesterton

As quoted in Trust Or Consequences : Build Trust Today Or Lose Your Market Tomorrow (2004) by Al Golin, p. 206; also in Storms of Life (2008) by Dr. Don Givens, p. 136

“I'm afraid I'm a practical man,' said the doctor with gruff humour, 'and I don't bother much about religion and philosophy.'
'You'll never be a practical man till you do,' said Father Brown. 'Look here, doctor; you know me pretty well; I think you know I'm not a bigot. You know I know there are all sorts in all religions; good men in bad ones and bad men in good ones.”

G. K. Chesterton

The Dagger with Wings (1926)

“Lord! what a strange world in which a man cannot remain unique even by taking the trouble to go mad!”

G. K. Chesterton book The Napoleon of Notting Hill

The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904)
The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904)

“Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.”

G. K. Chesterton

Illustrated London News (19 April 1930)