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Gilbert K. Chesterton

73 quotes

G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) was an English writer, philosopher, and literary critic known for his prolific output, quick wit, and paradoxical style of argument. The creator of the beloved Father Brown detective stories, Chesterton wrote on theology, philosophy, and social issues with a joyful exuberance that earned him the nickname "the prince of paradox."

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“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 Quotes by Gilbert K. Chesterton

“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

“What affects men sharply about a foreign nation is not so much finding or not finding familiar things it is rather not finding them in the familiar place.”

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Men

“Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it.”

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Respect

“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

“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Happiness

“When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Life

“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

“Brave men are all vertebrates they have their softness on the surface and their toughness in the middle.”

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Men

“The most dangerous criminal now is the entirely lawless modern philosopher. Compared to him, burglars and bigamists are essentially moral men.”

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Men

“There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and the tired man who wants a book to read.”

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Great

“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

“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 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

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

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Experience

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

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Architecture

“The trouble with always trying to preserve the health of the body is that it is so difficult to do without destroying the health of the mind.”

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Health

“Happy is he who still loves something he loved in the nursery: He has not been broken in two by time he is not two men, but one, and he has saved not only his soul but his life.”

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Men

“Happiness is a mystery, like religion, and should never be rationalised.”

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Happiness

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

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

God

“People who make history know nothing about history. You can see that in the sort of history they make.”

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

History