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
happiness power agriculture
True contentment is a thing as active as agriculture. It is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. It is arduous and it is rare.
powerful stupid race
An enormous amount of modern ingenuity is expended on finding defences for the indefensible conduct of the powerful. As I have said above, these defences generally exhibit themselves most emphatically in the form of appeals to physical science. And of all the forms in which science, or pseudo-science, has come to the rescue of the rich and stupid, there is none so singular as the singular invention of the theory of races.
powerful passion men
Powerful men who have powerful passions use much of their strength in forging chains for themselves.
powerful sky tree
Now, among the heresies that are spoken in this matter is the habit of calling a grey day a "colourless" day. Grey is a colour, and can be a very powerful and pleasing colour.... A grey clouded sky is indeed a canopy between us and the sun; so is a green tree, if it comes to that. But the grey umbrellas differ as much as the green in their style and shape, in their tint and tilt. One day may be grey like steel, and another grey like dove’s plumage. One may seem grey like the deathly frost, and another grey like the smoke of substantial kitchens.
men gun power
The power which makes a man able to entertain a good impulse is the same as that which enables him to make a good gun; it is imagination.
power criticism speech
It is the beginning of all true criticism of our time to realize that it has really nothing to say, at the very moment when it has invented so tremendous a trumpet for saying it.
action believe falls however men unless
I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.
catching discovered miss train
The only way of catching a train I have ever discovered is to miss the train before.
christian difficult found ideal left tried
The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.
brute mere sort
The mere brute pleasure of reading the sort of pleasure a cow must have in grazing.
man
Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.
funny food sarcasm
The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.
art sunset bad-ass
All architecture is great architecture after sunset; perhaps architecture is really a nocturnal art, like the art of fireworks.
two people world
There are two kinds of people in the world, the conscious dogmatists and the unconscious dogmatists. I have always found myself that the unconscious dogmatists were by far the most dogmatic.