Quotes by

G.K. Chesterton

You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink. – G.K. Chesterton

I regard golf as an expensive way of playing marbles. – G.K. Chesterton

Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese. – G.K. Chesterton

In a world flagrant with the failures of civilization, what is there particularly immortal about our own? – G.K. Chesterton

What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon. – G.K. Chesterton

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

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

There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and a tired man who wants a book to read. – G.K. Chesterton

Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere. – G.K. Chesterton

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. – G.K. Chesterton

A stiff apology is a second insult…. The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt. – G.K. Chesterton

Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame. – G.K. Chesterton

There is nothing the matter with Americans except their ideals. The real American is all right; it is the ideal American who is all wrong. – G.K. Chesterton

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

I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on man unless they act. – G.K. Chesterton

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? – G.K. Chesterton

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. – G.K. Chesterton