{ }
GK Chesterton

GK Chesterton
Great truths can only be forgotten and can never be falsified.
The only right way of telling a story is to begin at the beginning--at the beginning of the world. Therefore all books have to be begun in the wrong way for the sake of brevity.
Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.
By a curious confusion, many modern critics have passed from the proposition that a masterpiece may be unpopular to the other proposition that unless it is unpopular it cannot be a masterpiece.
I say that a man must be certain of his morality for the simple reason that he has to suffer for it.
When a politician is in opposition he is an expert on the means to some end; and when he is in office he is an expert on the obstacles to it.
Love means loving the unlovable - or it is no virtue at all.
All but the hard hearted man must be torn with pity for this pathetic dilemma of the rich man, who has to keep the poor man just stout enough to do the work and just thin enough to have to do it.
A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.
The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.
Most modern freedom is at root fear. It is not so much that we are too bold to endure rules; it is rather that we are too timid to endure responsibilities.
America is the only country ever founded on a creed.
If my children wake up on Christmas morning and have someone to thank for putting candy in their stocking, have I no one to thank for putting two feet in mine?
Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.
Truth is sacred; and if you tell the truth too often nobody will believe it.
The only defensible war is a war of defense.
You can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it.
There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and the tired man who wants a book to read.
Children are innocent and love justice, while most adults are wicked and prefer mercy.
Journalism largely consists of saying 'Lord Jones is Dead' to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive.