1,399 Quotes by Gilbert K. Chesterton

Surprise is the secret of joy.

We do not want joy and anger to neutralize each other and produce a surly contentment; we want a fiercer delight and a fiercer discontent. We have to feel the universe at once as an ogre's castle, to be stormed, and yet as our own cottage, to which we can return to at evening.

Civilization has run on ahead of the soul of man, and is producing faster than he can think and give thanks.

Truths turn into dogmas the instant that they are disputed. Thus every man who utters a doubt defines a religion.

We cannot fling ourselves into the blank future; we can only call up images from the past. This being so, the important principle follows, that how many images we have largely depends on how much past we have.

And Noah he often said to his wife when he sat down to dine, "I don't care where the water goes if it doesn't get into the wine."

If men will not be governed by the Ten Commandments, they shall be governed by the ten thousand commandments

A great curse has fallen upon modern life with the discovery of the vastness of the word Education.

The Reformer is always right about what's wrong. However, he's often wrong about what is right.