Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame. – Gilbert K. Chesterton
Cruelty is, perhaps, the worst kid of sin. Intellectual cruelty is certainly the worst kind of cruelty. – Gilbert K. Chesterton
To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless. – Gilbert K. Chesterton
And they that rule in England, in stately conclaves met, alas, alas for England they have no graves as yet. – Gilbert K. Chesterton
The trouble with always trying to preserve the health of the body is that it is so difficult to do without destroying the health of the mind. – Gilbert K. Chesterton
Fable is more historical than fact, because fact tells us about one man and fable tells us about a million men. – Gilbert K. Chesterton
The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid. – Gilbert K. Chesterton
Without education we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously. – Gilbert K. Chesterton
The fatal metaphor of progress, which means leaving things behind us, has utterly obscured the real idea of growth, which means leaving things inside us. – Gilbert K. Chesterton
The word ‘good’ has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man. – Gilbert K. Chesterton
If you do not understand a man you cannot crush him. And if you do understand him, very probably you will not. – Gilbert K. Chesterton
Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf; is better than a whole loaf. – Gilbert K. Chesterton
Let a man walk ten miles steadily on a hot summer’s day along a dusty English road, and he will soon discover why beer was invented. – Gilbert K. Chesterton
Do not free a camel of the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel. – Gilbert K. Chesterton
If I can put one touch of rosy sunset into the life of any man or woman, I shall feel that I have worked with God. – Gilbert K. Chesterton
The perplexity of life arises from there being too many interesting things in it for us to be interested properly in any of them. – Gilbert K. Chesterton
The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it. – Gilbert K. Chesterton
The true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground. – Gilbert 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. – Gilbert K. Chesterton
The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all. – Gilbert K. Chesterton
All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change. – Gilbert K. Chesterton
The aim of life is appreciation; there is no sense in not appreciating things; and there is no sense in having more of them if you have less appreciation of them. – Gilbert K. Chesterton