K. Chesterton Quotations

The poet only desires exaltation and expansion. The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head -- and it is his head that splits.

We are all in the same boat in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.

Nonsense is a kind of exuberant capering round a discovered truth.

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

If an angel out of heaven / Brings you other things to drink, / Thank him for his kind attentions, / Go and pour them down the sink.

He could not think up to the height of his own towering style.

We all feel the riddle of the earth without anyone to point it out. The mystery of life is the plainest part of it.

Better to have loved a short man than never to have loved a tall.

Blasphemy itself could not survive religion; if anyone doubts that, let him try to blaspheme Odin.

And they that rule in England, / In stately conclave met, / Alas, alas for England / They have no graves as yet.

The worst of work nowadays is what happens to people when they cease to work.

The road from heaven to Hereford / Where the apple wood of Hereford / Goes all the way to Wales.

The most wonderful thing about miracles is that they sometimes happen.

As enunciated today, 'progress' is simply a comparative of which we have not settled the superlative.

The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.

Tea, although an Oriental, / Is a gentleman at least; / Cocoa is a cad and coward, / Cocoa is a vulgar beast.

Smile at us, pay us, pass us; but do not quite forget. / For we are the people of England, that never have spoken yet.

But who hath seen the Grocer Treat housemaids to his tea Or crack a bottle of fish sauce Or stand a man to cheese? Gilbert K

I believe in getting into hot water. I think it keeps you clean.

I believe in getting into hot water - it helps keep you clean.

The man who sees consistency in things is a wit; the man who sees the inconsistency in things is a humorist.

The trouble about always trying to preserve the health of the body is that it is so difficult to do without destroying the health of the mind.

The men that worked for England / They have their graves at home.