If we want to give poor people soap we must set out deliberately to give them luxuries. If we will not make them rich enough to be clean, then empathically we must do what we did with the saints. We must reverence them for being dirty. Gilbert K. Chesterton More Quotes by Gilbert K. Chesterton More Quotes From Gilbert K. Chesterton Any one thinking of the Holy Child as born in December would mean by it exactly what we mean by it; that Christ is not merely a summer sun of the prosperous but a winter fire for the unfortunate. Gilbert K. Chesterton christmas summer children As an explanation of the world materialism has a sort of insane simplicity. It has the quality of a madman's arguments; we have at once the sense of it covering everything and the sense of it leaving everything out. Gilbert K. Chesterton simplicity leaving insane For children are innocent and love justice, while most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy. Gilbert K. Chesterton justice love children Human anger is a higher thing than what is called divine discontent. For you must be angry with something; but you can be discontented with everything. Gilbert K. Chesterton discontent anger divine To be wrong, and to be carefully wrong, that is the definition of decadence. Gilbert K. Chesterton decadence definitions The aesthete aims at harmony rather than beauty. If his hair does not match the mauve sunset against which he is standing, he hurriedly dyes his hair another shade of mauve. If his wife does not go with the wall-paper, he gets a divorce. Gilbert K. Chesterton divorce sunset wall This is, first and last, the real value of Christmas; in so far as the mythology remains at all it is a kind of happy mythology. Personally, of course, I believe in Santa Claus; but it is the season of forgiveness, and I will forgive others for not doing so. Gilbert K. Chesterton forgiving real believe The great Gaels of Ireland are the men that God made mad, For all their wars are merry, and all their songs are sad. Gilbert K. Chesterton song men war One elephant having a trunk was odd; but all elephants having trunks looked like a plot. Gilbert K. Chesterton plot elephants odd [Fairy tales] make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water. Gilbert K. Chesterton wine rivers running London is a riddle. Paris is an explanation. Gilbert K. Chesterton riddle paris london You don't want to be so open minded that your brains fall out! Gilbert K. Chesterton want brain fall Youth is the period in which a man can be hopeless. The end of every episode is the end of the world. But the power of hoping through everything, the knowledge that the soul survives its adventures, that great inspiration comes to the middle-aged. Gilbert K. Chesterton live-life inspiration time There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds. Gilbert K. Chesterton carpe-diem hope graduation An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered. Gilbert K. Chesterton inspirational life travel You can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution. Gilbert K. Chesterton democracies-have freedom order The present condition of fame is merely fashion. Gilbert K. Chesterton fashion literature fame There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person. Gilbert K. Chesterton artistic-temperament earth inspirational Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame. Gilbert K. Chesterton beautiful beauty art A puritan is a person who pours righteous indignation into the wrong things. Gilbert K. Chesterton puritan righteous persons
