1874-1936, British Author
''My country, right or wrong'' is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying ''My mother, drunk or sober.''
Gilbert K. Chesterton – [Patriotism]
A building is akin to dogma; it is insolent, like dogma. Whether or no it is permanent, it claims permanence, like a dogma. People ask why we have no typical architecture of the modern world, like impressionism in painting. Surely it is obviously because we have not enough dogmas; we cannot bear to see anything in the sky that is solid and enduring, anything in the sky that does not change like the clouds of the sky.
Gilbert K. Chesterton – [Architecture]
A cosmic philosophy is not constructed to fit a man; a cosmic philosophy is constructed to fit a cosmos. A man can no more possess a private religion than he can possess a private sun and moon.
Gilbert K. Chesterton – [Religion]
A good novel tells us the truth about it's hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.
Gilbert K. Chesterton – [Books and Reading]
A large section of the intelligentsia seems wholly devoid of intelligence.
Gilbert K. Chesterton – [Intelligence and Intellectuals]
A man does not know what he is saying until he knows what he is not saying.
Gilbert K. Chesterton – [Speakers and Speaking]
A new philosophy generally means in practice the praise of some old vice.
Gilbert K. Chesterton – [Philosophers and Philosophy]
A puritan is a person who pours righteous indignation into the wrong things.
Gilbert K. Chesterton – [Puritans]
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.
Gilbert K. Chesterton – [Apologies]
A teacher who is not dogmatic is simply a teacher who is not teaching.
Gilbert K. Chesterton – [Teachers and Teaching]
A turkey is more occult and awful than all the angels and archangels. In so far as God has partly revealed to us an angelic world, he has partly told us what an angel means. But God has never told us what a turkey means. And if you go and stare at a live turkey for an hour or two, you will find by the end of it that the enigma has rather increased than diminished.
Gilbert K. Chesterton – [Birds]
A woman uses her intelligence to find reasons to support her intuition.
Gilbert K. Chesterton – [Intuition]
A yawn is a silent shout.
Gilbert K. Chesterton – [Bores and Boredom]
All architecture is great architecture after sunset; perhaps architecture is really a nocturnal art, like the art of fireworks.
Gilbert K. Chesterton – [Architecture]
All slang is metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry.
Gilbert K. Chesterton – [Slang]
Among the very rich you will never find a really generous man, even by accident. They may give their money away, but they will never give themselves away; they are egoistic, secretive, dry as old bones. To be smart enough to get all that money you must be dull enough to want it.
Gilbert K. Chesterton – [Riches]
An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.
Gilbert K. Chesterton – [Adventure]
Angels fly because they take themselves lightly.
Gilbert K. Chesterton – [Angels]
Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame.
Gilbert K. Chesterton – [Arts and Artists]
Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.
Gilbert K. Chesterton – [Arts and Artists]