G. K. Chesterton Quotes

The thing I hate about an argument is that it always interrupts a discussion.

Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.

Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult, and not tried.

I say that a man must be certain of his morality for the simple reason that he has to suffer for it.

To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.

Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers is another.

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

All slang is a metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry.

If a rhinoceros were to enter this resteraunt now, there is no denying he would have great power here. But I would be the first to rise and assure him that he had no authority whatever.

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.

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.

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

I still believe in liberalism today as much as I ever did, but, oh, there was a happy time when I believed in liberals...

Men always talk about the most important things to perfect strangers. In the perfect stranger we perceive man himself; the image of a God is not disguised by resemblances to an uncle or doubts of wisdom of a mustache.

Truth must necessarily be stranger than fiction, for fiction is the creation of the human mind and therefore congenial to it.

The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies probably because they are generally the same people.

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.

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

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

There are no wise few. Every aristocracy that has ever existed has behaved, in all essential points, exactly like a small mob.

The honest poor can sometimes forget poverty. The honest rich can never forget it.

Virtue is not the absense of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers virtue is a vivid and separate ting, like pain or a particular smell.

Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere.

There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person.

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

You can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution

Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.

By a curious confusion, many modern critics have passed from the proposition that a masterpiece may be unpopular to the other proposition that unless it is unpopular it cannot be a masterpiece.

I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.

It is not bigotry to be certain we are right but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong.

It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong.

People in high life are hardened to the wants and distresses of mankind as surgeons are to their bodily pains.

A dead thing goes with the stream. Only a living thing can go against it.

Literature is a luxury fiction is a necessity.

The poor complain that they are governed badly. The rich complain that they are governed at all.

I believe in getting into hot water it keeps you clean.

I believe in getting into hot water; it keeps you clean.

If there were no God, there would be no Atheists.

The rich are the scum of the earth in every country.