Gilbert Keith Chesterton quotes

“Man seems to be capable of great virtues but not of small virtues; capable of defying his torturer but not of keeping his temper.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“The whole order of things is as outrageous as any miracle which could presume to violate it.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“There is but an inch of difference between a cushioned chamber and a padded cell.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“We call a man a bigot or a slave of dogma because he is a thinker who has thought thoroughly and to a definite end.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“The fatal metaphor of progress, which means leaving things behind us, has utterly obscured the real idea of growth, which means leaving things inside us.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“Artistic temperament is the disease that afflicts amateurs.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“Chastity does not mean abstention from sexual wrong; it means something flaming, like Joan of Arc.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“Do not free a camel of the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

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

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“Some men never feel small, but these are the few men who are.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“We are justified in enforcing good morals, for they belong to all mankind; but we are not justified in enforcing good manners, for good manners always mean our own manners.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“Buddhism is not a creed, it is a doubt.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

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

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“Never invoke the gods unless you really want them to appear. It annoys them very much.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“The only defensible war is a war of defense.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“The vulgar man is always the most distinguished, for the very desire to be distinguished is vulgar.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“When we really worship anything, we love not only its clearness but its obscurity. We exult in its very invisibility.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“And they that rule in England, in stately conclaves met, alas, alas for England they have no graves as yet.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“Large organization is loose organization. Nay, it would be almost as true to say that organization is always disorganization.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“Let a man walk ten miles steadily on a hot summer's day along a dusty English road, and he will soon discover why beer was invented.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“New roads; new ruts.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“Nothing is poetical if plain daylight is not poetical; and no monster should amaze us if the normal man does not amaze.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“Ritual will always mean throwing away something: destroying our corn or wine upon the altar of our gods.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“Science in the modern world has many uses; its chief use, however, is to provide long words to cover the errors of the rich.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“The cosmos is about the smallest hole that a man can hide his head in.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“The greenhorn is the ultimate victor in everything; it is he that gets the most out of life.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“The man who throws a bomb is an artist, because he prefers a great moment to everything.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton

“The mere brute pleasure of reading the sort of pleasure a cow must have in grazing.”

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton