Quotes by G. K. Chesterton

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There is a big difference between the passionate man who wants to read a book, and the tired man who wants a book to read.

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Undeserved admiration is an insult.

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Only those men who are not afraid of women are truly cowards.

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Speed ​​as it is known, is known in comparisons: when two trains are traveling at equal speed, they both appear to be stationary. In a similar way it is with society: it stands still, if all its members behave like madmen.

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To follow a tradition is to cast your votes for the most mysterious party - the party of our ancestors.

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Listening to music while eating is an insult to both the cook and the violinist.

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The snob insists that only on his head is a real hat; the moralist insists that only under his hat is a true head.

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The modern world is not destined to see the future, unless we understand the following: instead of aiming for all things extraordinary and exciting, it is more rational to resort to what is usually regarded as boring.

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A modern city is ugly not because it is a city, but because it is a jungle…

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The modern critic thinks something like this: “Of course I don't like green cheese. Instead, I really like a beige sherry."

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Haste is not good at least in that it takes too much time.

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Suffering, with its horror and hopelessness, strongly attracts the young, inexperienced artist, just as a schoolboy draws in his notebooks goblins, skeletons and hangmen.

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The tendency towards free love is equivalent to the desire to become a married bachelor or a white African.

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The strength of any artist lies in the ability to control, to diminish his lack of mastery.

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Serious doubts are often caused by the most insignificant trifles.

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We are always exposed to danger that threatens us not, we take oaths that bind us to nothing, we challenge our enemies we do not fear - here is the false tyranny of decadence that is called freedom.

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A holiday, like liberalism, marks human freedom. The miracle is God's freedom.

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Once upon a time, "compromise" meant that half a loaf was better than nothing. For today's politicians, "compromise" means that half a loaf of bread is better than a whole loaf.

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Simple people will always be sentimental; sentimental is the one who does not hide his most intimate feelings, who does not try to invent a new way of expressing them.

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The puritan is a person who pours out his indignation on what he shouldn't.

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The Puritan tries to understand the truth; the Catholic is content with the fact that he exists.

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Travel develops the mind, if of course you have one.

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Once man learns to play at his leisure, why should he not learn and think of his own pleasure?

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A growing need in a strong man is an undeniable sign of weakness.

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A novel in which no one dies seems to me a lifeless novel.

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Mad is the man who has lost everything except reason.

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There is a great difference between the man who wants to read a book and the man who needs a book to read.

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Psychoanalysis is a confession, without the absolution of sins.

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It often happens that bad people are animated by good intentions, but even more often, on the contrary, that good people are animated by bad intentions.

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Man can claim to be smart, but he cannot claim to be intelligent.

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It is the human race to which so many of my readers belong…

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Honesty is not respectable, hypocrisy is respectable. Honesty is always ridiculous, because everything around us is ridiculous.

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Humanity is not a herd of horses to feed, but a club to join.

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The honest poor man can sometimes forget his poverty. An honest rich man never forgets about his wealth.

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Weirdness surprises only the common people, but not the weird ones. This is why normal people have so many adventures, while those weirdos are always complaining about boredom.

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I have a soft spot for Philistines. They are often right, but I can't explain why.

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I came to the conclusion that the optimist thinks everything is beautiful except the pessimist, and the pessimist thinks everything is bad except himself.

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I want to love my neighbor, not because he is like me, but precisely because he is different. I want to love the world not as a mirror in which I like to see my own reflection, but as a woman, because it is completely different from me.

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Cynicism is related to sentimentality in that a cynical mind is as sensitive as it is sentimental.

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The Christian ideal is not something we strive for and never achieve; it is something we never aim for and which is exceedingly difficult for us to achieve.

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Courage: the strong will to live, being ready to die.

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Tolerance is the virtue of opinionated people.

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What we call "progress" is only the comparative degree of that state for which there is no superlative degree.

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Good is that religion on account of which you can joke.

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He who wants everything, wants nothing.

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The criminal kills man, the suicide - humanity.

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The ability to fight in circumstances that inspire nothing but despair.

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To determine the absolute truth in a dispute is all the easier because it does not exist in nature.

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A fact is that which man owes to the world, while fantasy, fiction is that which the world owes to man.

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A fanatic is one who takes his own opinion seriously.

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A good novel tells the truth about its hero, and a bad one about its author.

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While I don't believe we should eat beef without mustard, I am absolutely convinced that today there is a much more serious risk: the desire to eat mustard without beef.

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I am always deeply affected by a peculiar property of my countrymen: an unjustified arrogance combined with an immeasurable modesty.

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Many detective novels fail precisely because the criminal is not involved in the subject, other than through the necessity of committing a crime.

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Many who are able to compose an epic poem are not able to write an epigram.

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Many people speak too humbly, and the proud are too self-conscious.

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Silence is an unbearable reply.

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We are not so generous as to be ascetics.

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We are so burdened with painful prejudices, and we feel so much madness, that the sane man frightens us, as if he were mad.

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Life is always serious, but to live always seriously is impossible.

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Materialists and madmen do not know doubt.

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Sentimental people every day and at all hours are the most dangerous enemies of society. Dealing with them is like watching endless poetic sunsets since early morning.

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Critics do not ignore the sage advice not to throw stones if you live in a greenhouse.

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Idiots are attracted to intellect like cats are attracted to fire.

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The frivolity of our society is manifested in the fact that it has long since learned to laugh at itself.

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It's easy to be crazy; it is easy to be a heretic.

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Literature and fiction are totally different things. Literature is only a luxury, fiction - a need.

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Any fashion is a form of madness. That is why Christianity is out of date, because it is healthy.

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Love doesn't blind you, dammit! - love binds you, and the tighter it does, the clearer you see.

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Love, by its very nature, fetters itself, and the institution of marriage only did a service to the common man, bound him by his word.

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There are no words in the world that can express the difference between loneliness and friendship.

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There is no such thing as an "uninteresting subject" in the world. Instead, there is the concept of "the indifferent man."

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The arrogant excuse is still an insult.

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The first of the most democratic doctrines is that all men are interesting.

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Drink when you're happy, and never drink when you're unhappy.

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The paradox of courage is that you don't have to care too much about your life to save it.

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The paradox recalls a forgotten truth.

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Rejecting vanity and false modesty (which sane people always jokingly mention), I must say with all sincerity: my contribution to the literature is that I left some pretty good ideas for the time in which I lived.

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From the eyes to the heart there is a path that does not pass through the intellect.

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Orthodoxy is normality, health, and health is more interesting and complex than madness.

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They (the modern philosophers) subordinate the good to the expediency, although every good is an end, and every opportunity is no more than a means to that end.

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It's one thing to love people, it's another to be a philanthropist.

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The common view of madness is misleading: man does not, in fact, lose his logic; he loses everything except logic.

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The most intimate things can only be told to complete strangers.

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Tastes are not discussed: because of tastes, insults are made, quarrels arise and people quarrel.

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You can say anything about a madman except that his actions are without reason. On the contrary, a madman sees a reason in everything.

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Nothing brings more sadness to our age than fun.

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Never destroy a fence without knowing why it was erected.

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Absurdity is the sign of dignity.

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violence to man is not violence, but rebellion, for every man is a king.

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We only really remember what we have forgotten.

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Sacrilege dies with religion; if you doubt this, try blaspheming against Odin.

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When humanity stops producing happy people, it starts producing optimists.

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When it is said that the Anglo-Boer war should not be blamed until the moment it is finished, it is not even worth answering; with the same success we can say that we cannot block the mother's path to the abyss, because for now she has not fallen.

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We call a classic a writer whom we can praise without reading.

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It's not hard to see why legend deserved more respect than history. A legend is created by a whole village, and a book is written by a lone madman.

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It is not about the fact that the world has become much worse, but about the fact that the coverage of events has become much more effective.

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It's not that they can't see the solution. It's about them not being able to see the problem.

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Democracy is the rule of the uneducated, and aristocracy is the rule of the ill-educated.

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Democrats advocated equality from birth. Tradition advocates equality after death.

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For the childlike nature of the pessimist, every change in fashion is the end of the world.

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For the poet, the joy of life is the reason for faith, for a saint - its fruit.

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For the passionate man, love and peace are a mystery, for the sensitive man, a truth as old as the world.

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Friends love you as you are; the wife loves you and wants to change you into another person.

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The man who mechanically eats caviar behaves much more naturally than the man who eats nothing but grapes on principle.

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The greatest sin of journalism is that in his articles the journalist exposes himself in a false light.

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In a woman there is more spontaneous force, which is called ingenuity; in a man there is more pent-up force, which is called laziness….

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In love, the lender shares happiness with the borrower.

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In the ecstasy of victory mistakes are forgotten and extremes are born.

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The thief takes note of your property. He wants to possess her to keep an even stronger account of her.

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The education of children depends on the attitudes of adults towards them, and not on the attitude of adults towards the problems of education.

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All people who really believe in themselves are in the madhouse.

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The difference between the creature and the creation boils down to this: the creature can only be loved by the creator, and the creation is loved without being created yet.

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All conservatism is based on the fact that if we leave everything as it is, everything will stay in its place. But it is not so. If we leave even one thing in its place, it will undergo the most incredible changes.

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The newspaper which appears extremely quickly, is interesting even in its faults; the encyclopedia, however, appearing extremely slowly, is not interesting even in its discoveries.

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The only real happiness is an unpaid debt.

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The only downside to our democracy is that it does not tolerate equality.

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If we called cabbage cactus, we would immediately notice many interesting things about it.

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By mocking mediocrity, we run the major risk of becoming mediocre.

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Intellectuals are divided into two categories: some worship the intellect, and others use it.

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Art is always a limitation. The meaning of each painting is between the frames of its frame.

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Every politician is a promising politician.

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Everyone thinks about public opinion and acts in the name of public opinion, that is, in the name of everyone, less in his own.

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Everyone wants to be informed honestly, impartially, fairly - and in full accordance with their opinions.

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What's the point of fighting against the stupid tyrant in London, if such a tyrant is all-powerful in your family too?

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Carlyle says that men in the great majority are fools; Christianity, however, pronounced itself more precisely and categorically: they are all fools.

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From pure humanity to hatred is not far.

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Evil creeps in like disease. The good runs panting, like the doctor.

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Dealing with politics is like blowing your nose or texting your fiancee. You have to do this yourself, even if you don't know how.

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The only chance to survive - not to cling to life.

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If you are told that some object is too small or too big, too beautiful or too green, too bad in one sense, and just as bad in the opposite sense, know: there is nothing better than this object!

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If you don't feel the urge to break at least one of the Ten Commandments, there is something wrong with you.

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If the woman could become our companion, she might, my friend, be given a knee in the ass.

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If a thing is really worth doing, it must be done even badly.

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There are only three things in the world that women do not understand: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.

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Life is too good to enjoy.

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Journalism is genuine when they are informed: "Lord John is dead" - by people who didn't even know Lord John lived.

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Artistic temperament is a disease that affects amateurs.

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English Radicalism has always been an outfit rather than a conviction; if it had been a conviction, it could have achieved the victory.

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Anarchy and art are unitary. They are synonyms. The one who threw a bomb is a poet or an artist, because that great moment for him is capital.

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Actors who can't act have confidence in themselves; as are bankruptcies.

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In nine cases out of ten, the wife's lover is hated the most by the wife.

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Architecture is the alphabet of giants.

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The poor sometimes and formerly revolted against bad government; the rich - always and against everything.

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Adventure can be crazy; but the hero must be rational.

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The Bible tells us to love our neighbor, but also our enemies; probably because for the most part, they are one and the same person.

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Charity is the ability to protect that which is not protected.

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In great battles the vanquished often win. Those who were defeated towards the end of the battle, triumph at its end.

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In a great work there is always a simple truth.

"Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair."

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It is nonsense to talk forever about the alternative of faith and reason. The very existence of reason is a matter of faith.

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The modern young man will never change his environment, because he always changes his perception.

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We escape into the future because we cannot compete with our grandfathers.

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A madman is not a person who has lost his mind, but someone who has lost everything, not just his mind.

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Everyone in the world needs to believe that they can provide something that the world would not receive without them.

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The primary fault of sociology is what is commonly called: diagnosis before cure. Because it directly follows from the definition and sanctity of man that in social issues we can only find the disease if we have already found the cure.

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Humor is the only thing that humanity considers sacred because it does not understand.

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If we ourselves are nationalists, we must also allow free space for the nationalism of other peoples.

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There is only one reality, and we are only its shadows (...). Different phenomena are different faces of the one reality.

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Good and evil go round on the same wheel.

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True mystics do not hide, but reveal mysteries. They display it high for all to see, but that keeps the mystery a mystery.

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There are no rules for building a castle in the air.

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Children are innocent and love justice, while we are mostly ill-tempered and naturally prefer mercy.

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Where does a wise man hide a letter? In the forest. But what do you do when there is no forest? Grow one to hide inside.

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If someone loses his faith in God, he is not threatened by the fact that he will not believe in anything, but by the fact that he will believe in everything.

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Private affairs are now common in the worst sense, i.e. impersonal and inhuman. Public affairs have already become private affairs in the worst sense, i.e. they are mysterious, secretive and predominantly corrupt. The new kind of business power will unite everything, and thus undermine all efforts aimed at a better world.

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If anything can be deduced from history and human nature, it is perfectly certain that tyranny will become more and more tyrannical, and that commodities will become more and more inferior.

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No one wants all people to be villagers, even at normal ages. It is a very defensible view that even in normal times some of the most intelligent turn to the cities. But I say that today the cities themselves are the enemies of intelligence, and the lives of the villagers would naturally have more variety and activity than these cities inspire. I say that only after turning off this unnatural noise and light can the human mind begin to function and grow again.

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You're so smart to get that big bucks, you can only be if you're dumb enough to want it.

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Thieves respect private property, they just want it to be theirs - so they can respect it even more.

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A dead thing can swim with the tide, but only a living thing can swim against the tide.

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It is not love that unites us, but hate.

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There are big people who make everyone feel small in their company. However, in the company of really great people, everyone feels great.

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Children do not learn that dragons exist from fairy tales. Children already know that dragons exist. They learn from fairy tales that they can be defeated.

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People who believe in themselves perfectly are all in mental institutions.

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Whether good or bad, right or wrong, the capitalist system is based on two basic ideas: the rich will always be rich enough to make the poor work for wages, and the poor will always be poor enough to want to work for wages.

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We are not choosing between a possible peasant and a successful commercial way of life. What we are choosing between is the peasant way of life, which may be possible, and the commercial one, which has already failed. We don't intend to lure people from a thriving business to some kind of idyllic vacation or a peasant-type utopia. We are trying to make a proposal for a fresh start after an experiment that was already doomed to fail.

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I do assert that the nature of peasant society does not depend on laws. The nature of peasant society depends on the peasants. For centuries men have maintained their separate and roughly equal estates side by side without many of them being lost or bought up en masse by any of them. Although very often there was no law on acquisition. The peasants couldn't buy because they didn't sell. When people find themselves in such a situation, they behave as they do when they arrive home.

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I am aware that many people use harsh words for conservatism, saying that the peasants are stupid, backward, and that their lives are boring and bleak. I know, they say, it is definitely monotony for a person to always have to do the same twenty tasks on a farm - but of course it is always extremely fun and gratifying to do one thing hour after hour, day after day in the factory.

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We have to look at the world in such a way that we can connect the moment of wonder for the stranger and the greeting for the familiar.

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If we can make people happier, it doesn't matter if we make them poorer, it doesn't matter if we make them less productive, it doesn't matter if we make them less advanced in the sense of progress when they're just changing their lives without finding more and more joy in it.

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If people can produce their own goods locally, society is spared huge expenses that are very often far out of proportion to the return. If we manage to make a large number of simple and self-supporting people live among us, we can get rid of the hassle of a rather annoying and wasteful procedure. If we take this as a general outline of the reform, then it seems very true that a simpler way of life spreading in significant areas of society could make the use of machines more or less marginal, and this would perhaps be useful even for the exceptional person who really gives in to the his soul into the machines.

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Just as we leave a patch of forest for savages to hunt and fish in, so a higher civilization might leave a patch of industrial estate for those who are still in the stage of intellectual infancy and really wonder how the wheels go round and round.

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Socialism is nothing more than the consummation of capitalist centralization, even if the centralization took place as blindly as a blunder. I believe that for many sane people who find oversized social designs to be extremely unreasonable, the natural rationality of the idea that what we have messed up must be redone will be attractive.