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G. K. Chesterton Quotes
1874–1936 England
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was a British writer whose prolific and diverse output included works of philosophy, ontology, poetry, play writing, journalism, public lecturing and debating, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics (particularly for Catholicism), and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction. He has been called the "prince of paradox".
England Autobiographers Conservatives Critics Essayists Also known as: Chesterton, Chesterton, G. K., Chesterton, Gilbert Keith, G K Chesterton, G.K. Chesterton, GK Chesterton
Random G. K. Chesterton quote
299 quotes
It is not only possible to say a great deal in praise of play; it is really possible to say the highest things in praise of it. It might reasonably be maintained that the true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground.
All Things Considered (1908)
Fools! For I also had my hour;
It is something to have wept as we have wept,
Poems (1917)
"Spears at the charge!" yelled Mark amain.
The Ballad of the White Horse (1911)
Shyness is always the sign of a divided soul; a man is shy because he somehow thinks his position at once despicable and important. If he were without humility he would not care; and if he were without pride he would not care.
George Bernard Shaw (1909)
The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists, as the mother can love the unborn child.
Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens (1911)
Heaven shall forgive you Bridge at dawn,
Poems (1917)
Plato was right, but not quite right.
The Dumb Ox (1934)
Prince, I can hear the trumpet of Germinal,
Poems (1917)
The men that worked for England
Now there is any amount of this nonsense cropping up among American cranks. Anybody may propose to establish coercive Eugenics; or enforce psychoanalysis — that is, enforce confession without absolution.
What I Saw in America (1922)
The most unfathomable schools and sages have never attained to the gravity which dwells in the eyes of a baby of three months old. It is the gravity of astonishment at the universe, and astonishment at the universe is not mysticism, but a transcendent common-sense.
The Defendant (1901)
For there are two types of great humorist: those who love to see a man absurd and those who hate to see him absurd. Of the first kind are Rabelais and Dickens; of the second kind are Swift and Bernard Shaw.
George Bernard Shaw (1909)
Round the birth of "Pickwick" broke one of those literary quarrels that were too common in the life of Dickens.... He turned people into mortal enemies whom he might have turned very easily into immortal jokes.
Charles Dickens (1906)
But though they provide a man with a calendar they do not provide him with a creed. A man did not stand up and say 'I believe in Jupiter and Juno and Neptune,' etc., and she stands up and says 'I believe in God the Father Almighty' and the rest of the Apostles’ creed.
In the act of destroying the idea of Divine authority we have largely destroyed the idea of that human authority by which we do a long-division sum. With a long and sustained tug we have attempted to pull the mitre off pontifical man; and his head has come off with it.
Orthodoxy (1908)
Before the gods that made the gods
The Ballad of the White Horse (1911)
The Christ-child stood at Mary's knee,
Reason is always a kind of brute force; those who appeal to the head rather than the heart, however pallid and polite, are necessarily men of violence. We speak of 'touching' a man's heart, but we can do nothing to his head but hit it.
Twelve Types (1903)
Prince, Bayard would have smashed his sword
Poems (1917)
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