Gilbert K. Chesterton
Gilbert K. Chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG, better known as G. K. Chesterton, was an English writer, poet, philosopher, dramatist, journalist, orator, lay theologian, biographer, and literary and art critic. Chesterton is often referred to as the "prince of paradox." Time magazine has observed of his writing style: "Whenever possible Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories—first carefully turning them inside out."...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth29 May 1874
silence modern tyranny
Modern toleration is really a tyranny. It is a tyranny because it is a silence.
men boys never-quit
A man can never quite understand a boy, even when he has been a boy.
philosophy cat thinking
...But nature does not say that cats are more valuable than mice; nature makes no remark on the subject. She does not even say that the cat is enviable or the mouse pitiable. We think the cat superior because we have (or most of us have) a particular philosophy to the effect that life is better than death. But if the mouse were a German pessimist mouse, he might not think that the cat had beaten him at all. He might think he had beaten the cat by getting to the grave first.
men becoming mass
The Mass is not only about God becoming man, it is about Man becoming more himself.
mistake ideas nine
Nine out of ten of what we call new ideas are simply old mistakes.
adventure dry champagne
Adventure is the champagne of life, but I prefer my champagne and my adventures dry.
luxury honor halls
Honour is a luxury for aristocrats, but it is a necessity for hall-porters.
sea dust humanity
I have investigated the dust-heaps of humanity, and found a treasure in all of them. I have found that humanity is not incidentally engaged, but eternally and systematically engaged, in throwing gold into the gutter and diamonds into the sea.
life lying waiting
Life is not an illogicality; yet it is a trap for logicians. It looks just a little more mathematical and regular than it is; its exactitude is obvious, but its inexactitude is hidden; its wildness lies in wait.
men mythology myth
He who has no sympathy with myths has no sympathy with men
loyalty suicide men
Not only is suicide a sin, it is the sin. It is the ultimate and absolute evil, the refusal to take an interest in existence; the refusal to take the oath of loyalty to life. The man who kills a man, kills a man. The man who kills himself, kills all men. As far as he is concerned he wipes out the world.
saws
Marriage is a sort of poetical see-saw.
spiritual eye men
It is a strange thing that many truly spiritual men, such as General Gordon, have actually spent some hours in speculating upon the precise location of the Garden of Eden. Most probably we are in Eden still. It is only our eyes that have changed.
brute mere sort
The mere brute pleasure of reading the sort of pleasure a cow must have in grazing.