Gilbert Keith Chesterton Quotes

There is but an inch of difference between the cushioned chamber and the padded cell.

My country, right or wrong is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying "My mother, drunk or sober.

Some of the most frantic lies on the face of life are told with modesty and restraint; for the simple reason that only modesty and restraint will save them.

Even among liars there are two classes, one immeasurably better than another. The honest liar is the man who tells the truth about his old lies; who says on Wednesday, "I told a magnificent lie on Monday." He keeps the truth in circulation; no one version of things stagnates in him and becomes an evil secret.

Journalism consists largely in saying "Lord James is dead" to people who never knew Lord James was alive.

No man can be merry unless he is serious.

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

The true object of human life is play.

Life exists for the love of music or beautiful things.

He who lives in the future lives in a featureless blank; he lives in impersonality; he lives in Nirvana. The past is democratic, because it is a people. The future is despotic, because it is a caprice. Every man is alone in his prediction, just as each man is alone in a dream.