People that insist upon drinking and driving, are putting the quart before the hearse. Gilbert K. Chesterton More Quotes by Gilbert K. Chesterton More Quotes From Gilbert K. Chesterton There are a great many good people, and a great many sane people here this afternoon. Unfortunately, by a kind of coincidence, all the good people are mad, and all the sane people are wicked. Gilbert K. Chesterton wickedmadpeople That is the one eternal education: to be sure enough that something is true that you dare to tell it to a child. Gilbert K. Chesterton dareenoughchildren Virtue is not the absence of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate thing, like pain or a particular smell. Gilbert K. Chesterton smellpainvices The supreme adventure is being born. There we do walk suddenly into a splendid and startling trap... When we step into the family, by the act of being born, we do step into a world which is incalculable, into a world which has its own strange laws, into a world which could do without us, into a world we have not made. In other words, when we step into the family we step into a fairy-tale. Gilbert K. Chesterton lawstepsadventure A detective story generally describes six living men discussing how it is that a man is dead. A modern philosophic story generally describes six dead men discussing how any man can possibly be alive. Gilbert K. Chesterton detectivesalivemen Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances which we know to be desperate. Gilbert K. Chesterton encouragingcheerfulmotivational Cruelty is, perhaps, the worst kid of sin. Intellectual cruelty is certainly the worst kind of cruelty. Gilbert K. Chesterton intellectualliteraturekids Tolerance is a virtue of people who don't believe in anything anymore. Gilbert K. Chesterton tolerancebelievepeople There is at the back of every artist’s mind something like a pattern and a type of architecture. The original quality in any man of imagination is imagery. It is a thing like the landscape of his dreams; the sort of world he would like to make or in which he would like to wander, the strange flora and fauna, his own secret planet, the sort of thing he likes to think about. This general atmosphere, and pattern or a structure of growth, governs all his creations, however varied. Gilbert K. Chesterton dreammenthinking Modern man is educated to understand foreign languages and misunderstand foreigners. Gilbert K. Chesterton modernlanguagemen It's not the world that's got so much worse but the news coverage that's got so much better. Gilbert K. Chesterton newsmediaworld When a woman puts up her fists to a man she is putting herself in the only posture in which he is not afraid of her. Gilbert K. Chesterton posturefistsmen The simple sense of wonder at the shapes of things, and at their exuberant independence of our intellectual standards and our trivial definitions, is the basis of spirituality. Gilbert K. Chesterton inspirationsimplefaith I represent the jolly mass of mankind. I am the happy and reckless Christian. Gilbert K. Chesterton recklessmasschristian Wait and see whether the religion of the Servile State is not in every case what I say: the encouragement of small virtues supporting capitalism, the discouragement of the huge virtues that defy it. Gilbert K. Chesterton virtueencouragementwaiting Employers will give time to eat, time to sleep; they are in terror of a time to think. Gilbert K. Chesterton sleeptimethinking No man can be merry unless he is serious. Gilbert K. Chesterton merryseriousmen For good or evil, a line has been passed in our political history; and something that we have known all our lives is dead. I will take only one example of it: our politicians can no longer be caricatured. Gilbert K. Chesterton politicalhumorevil The materialist is sure that history has been simply and solely a chain of causation, just as the [lunatic] is quite sure that he is simply and solely a chicken. Materialists and madmen never have doubts. Gilbert K. Chesterton chickenschainsdoubt In the modern conflict between the Smile and the Laugh, I am all in favor of laughing. The recent stage of culture and criticism might very well be summed up as the men who smile criticizing the men who laugh. Gilbert K. Chesterton criticismlaughingmen
