549 Quotes by G.K. Chesterton

Every book which admits that evil is real is felt in some vague way to be admitting that good is unreal.

It seems a pity that psychology has destroyed all our knowledge of human nature.

Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances that we know to be desperate.”

People wonder why the novel is the most popular form of literature; people wonder why it is read more than books of science or books of metaphysics. The reason is very simple; it is merely that the novel is more true than they are.

Mysticism is generally felt vaguely to be itself vague— a thing of clouds and curtains, of darkness and concealing vapors, of bewildering conspiracies, or impenetrable symbols.

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die

Hardy went down to botanize in the swamp, while Meredith climbed towards the sun. Meredith became, at his best, a sort of daintily dressed Walt Whitman: Hardy became a sort of village atheist brooding and blaspheming over the village idiot.

Cruelty is, perhaps, the worst kid of sin. Intellectual cruelty is certainly the worst kind of cruelty.

The reason angels can fly is because they take themselves lightly.