The real pleasure-seeking is the combination of luxury and austerity in such a way that the luxury can really be felt.

Only men to whom the family is sacred will ever have a standard or a status by which to criticize the State. They alone can appeal to something more holy than the gods of the city.

Architecture approaches nearer than any other art to being irrevocable because it is so difficult to get rid of.

There is one thing which gives radiance to everything. It is the idea of something around the corner.

My brother, Cecil Edward Chesterton, was born when I was about five years old; and, after a brief pause, began to argue. He continued to argue to the end. I am glad to think that through all those years we never stopped arguing; and we never once quarreled. Perhaps the principal objection to a quarrel is that it interrupts an argument.

I believe your own accent is inimitable, though I shall practice it in my bath.

Think of all those ages through which men have had the courage to die, and then remember that we have actually fallen to talking about having the courage to live.