The fact is that purification and austerity are even more necessary for the appreciation of life and laughter than for anything else. To let no bird fly past unnoticed, to spell the stones and weeds, to have the mind a storehouse of sunset, requires a discipline in pleasure and an education in gratitude.
Gilbert K. ChestertonHuman anger is a higher thing than what is called divine discontent. For you must be angry with something; but you can be discontented with everything.
Gilbert K. ChestertonA man must be prepared not only to be a martyr, but to be a fool. It is absurd to say that a man is ready to toil and die for his convictions if he is not even ready to wear a wreathe around his head for them.
Gilbert K. ChestertonThere must be some good in the life of battle, for so many good men have enjoyed being soldiers.
Gilbert K. ChestertonIf you'd take your head home and boil it for a turnip it might be useful. I can't say. But it might.
Gilbert K. ChestertonThe truth is, of course, that the curtness of the Ten Commandments is an evidence, not of the gloom and narrowness of a religion, but, on the contrary, of its liberality and humanity. It is shorter to state the things forbidden than the things permitted; precisely because most things are permitted, and only a few things are forbidden.
Gilbert K. Chesterton