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
philosophy humanity made
I will not call it my philosophy; for I did not make it. God and humanity made it; and it made me.
inspiring new-year inspiration
the object of a new year is not that we should have a new year, but rather that we should have a new soul.
mean liberty superstitions
The old restriction meant that only the orthodox were allowed to discuss religion. Modern liberty means that nobody is allowed to discuss it. Good taste, the last and vilest of human superstitions, has succeeded in silencing us where all the rest have failed.
spiritual fall buddhism
[Buddhism and Christianity] are in one sense parallel and equal; as a mound and a hollow, as a valley and a hill. There is a sense in which that sublime despair is the only alternative to that divine audacity. It is even true that the truly spiritual and intellectual man sees it as sort of dilemma; a very hard and terrible choice. There is little else on earth that can compare with these for completeness. And he who does not climb the mountain of Christ does indeed fall into the abyss of Buddha.
lying book nurse
I left the fairy tales lying on the floor of the nursery, and I have not found any books so sensible since.
sadness world reason
The point is not that this world is too sad to love or too glad not to love; the point is that when you do love a thing, its gladness is a reason for loving it, and its sadness a reason for loving it more.
sex shouting thousand
Ten thousand women marched through the streets shouting, 'We will not be dictated to,' and went off and became stenographers.
adventure men dragons
A man cannot deserve adventures; he cannot earn dragons and hippogriffs.
suicide waiting coward
He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it.
men principles life-is
Life is indeed terribly complicated—to a man who has lost his principles.
stars sunset men
There is no way in which a man can earn a star or deserve a sunset.
favour obvious skepticism
It is assumed that the skeptic has no bias; whereas he has a very obvious bias in favour of skepticism.
jobs book heart
Indeed the Book of Job avowedly only answers mystery with mystery. Job is comforted with riddles; but he is comforted. Herein is indeed a type, in the sense of a prophecy, of things speaking with authority. For when he who doubts can only say, ‘I do not understand,’ it is true that he who knows can only reply or repeat ‘You do not understand.’ And under that rebuke there is always a sudden hope in the heart; and the sense of something that would be worth understanding.
mad people religion
People have fallen into a foolish habit of speaking of orthodoxy as something heavy, humdrum, and safe. There never was anything so perilous or so exciting as orthodoxy. It was sanity: and to be sane is more dramatic than to be mad.