There again," said Syme irritably, "what is there poetical about being in revolt? You might as well say that it is poetical to be sea-sick. Being sick is a revolt. Both being sick and being rebellious may be the wholesome thing on certain desperate occasions; but I'm hanged if I can see why they are poetical...It is things going right," he cried, "that is poetical! Our digestions, for instance, going sacredly and silently right, that is the foundation of all poetry...the most poetical thing in the world is not being sick.
Gilbert K. ChestertonThese are the things which might conceivably and truly make men forgive their enemies. We can only turn hate to love by understanding what are the things that men have loved; nor is it necessary to ask men to hate their loves in order to love one another. Just as two grocers are most likely to be reconciled when they remember for a moment that they are two fathers, so two nationals are most likely to be reconciled when they remember (if only for a moment) that they are two patriots.
Gilbert K. ChestertonThe prophet and the quack are alike admired for a generation, and admired for the wrong reasons.
Gilbert K. ChestertonDemocracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.
Gilbert K. ChestertonThe one perfectly divine thing, the one glimpse of God's paradise given on earth, is to fight a losing battle - and not lose it.
Gilbert K. Chesterton