549 Quotes by G.K. Chesterton

The great Gaels of Ireland are the men that God made mad, For all their wars are merry, and all their songs are sad.

The criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic.

There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.

I wish we could sometimes love the characters in real life as we love the characters in romances. There are a great many human souls whom we should accept more kindly, and even appreciate more clearly, if we simply thought of them as people in a story.

Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom. I am not, as will be seen, in any sense attacking logic: I only say that this danger does lie in logic, not in imagination.

This man's spiritual power has been precisely this, that he has distinguished between custom and creed. He has broken the conventions, but he has kept the commandments.

Humor can get in under the door while seriousness is still fumbling at the handle.

Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.

Happiness is not only a hope, but also in some strange manner a memory ... we are all kings in exile.