Gilbert K. Chesterton
Gilbert K. Chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG, better known as G. K. Chesterton, was an English writer, poet, philosopher, dramatist, journalist, orator, lay theologian, biographer, and literary and art critic. Chesterton is often referred to as the "prince of paradox." Time magazine has observed of his writing style: "Whenever possible Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories—first carefully turning them inside out."...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth29 May 1874
mother essence steps
The essence of all pantheism, evolutionism, and modern cosmic religion is really this proposition: that nature is our mother. Unfortunately, if you regard Nature as a mother, you discover she is a step-mother.
world worldly
somehow one must love the world without being worldly.
art essence long
Art is limitation; the essence of every picture is the frame. If you draw a giraffe, you must draw him with a long neck. If in your bold creative way you hold yourself free to draw a giraffe with a short neck, you will really find that you are not free to draw a giraffe.
men world ifs
if a man would make his world large, he must be always making himself small.
vision saws monsters
And though St. John saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators.
trying littles lasts
I did try to found a little heresy of my own; and when I had put the last touches to it, I discovered that it was orthodoxy.
real roots drawing
Real development is not leaving things behind, as on a road, but drawing life from them, as from a root.
buddhism doubt literature
Buddhism is not a creed, it is a doubt.
doubt enlightenment goes-on
In dealing with the arrogant asserter of doubt, it is not the right method to tell him to stop doubting. It is rather the right method to tell him to go on doubting, to doubt a little more, to doubt every day newer and wilder things in the universe, until at last, by some strange enlightenment, he may begin to doubt himself.
lying men creative
There are no new lies, no new heresies. Man is simply not that creative.
mean government cynical
Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.
truth dogma minutes
Truths turn into dogmas the minute they are disputed.
men rights divine-right
The sceptic ultimately undermines democracy (1) because he can see no significance in death and such things of a literal equality; (2) because he introduces different first principles, making debate impossible: and debate is the life of democracy; (3) because the fading of the images of sacred persons leaves a man too prone to be a respecter of earthly persons; (4) because there will be more, not less, respect for human rights if they can be treated as divine rights.
brain world fit
My brain and this world don't fit each other; and there's an end of it.