G. K. Chesterton quotes

G. K. Chesterton was an English writer, philosopher, and literary critic, celebrated for his wit and insightful essays. His works span a variety of genres, including detective fiction, theology, and social commentary. He became especially famous for creating the detective character Father Brown and for his spirited defense of Christianity. Here are 449 of his quotes:

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

G. K. Chesterton

Without education we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.

G. K. Chesterton

The most incredible thing about miracles is that they happen.

G. K. Chesterton

Journalism largely consists of saying "Lord Jones is Dead" to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive.

G. K. Chesterton

The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.

G. K. Chesterton

Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.

G. K. Chesterton

It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is that they can't see the problem.

G. K. Chesterton

The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.

G. K. Chesterton

There is a road from the eye to heart that does not go through the intellect.

G. K. Chesterton

If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.

G. K. Chesterton

There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person.

G. K. Chesterton

To be clever enough to get all that money, one must be stupid enough to want it.

G. K. Chesterton

Education is the period during which you are being instructed by somebody you do not know, about something you do not want to know.

G. K. Chesterton

All slang is metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry.

G. K. Chesterton

The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land.

G. K. Chesterton

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

G. K. Chesterton

I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.

G. K. Chesterton

Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason why it was put up.

G. K. Chesterton

It's not the world that's got so much worse but the news coverage that's got so much better.

G. K. Chesterton

A puritan is a person who pours righteous indignation into the wrong things.

G. K. Chesterton

Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it.

G. K. Chesterton

Never invoke the gods unless you really want them to appear. It annoys them very much.

G. K. Chesterton