G. K. Chesterton Quotes

There is a (paraphrased) quote by G.K. Chesterton in an episode of Criminal Minds that has always haunted me: "Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed." I knew then that I must find out more about and read some of Chesterton's work.

G.k. Chesterton Quotes is a great place to start because it gives you a glimpse into all of his writing- the fiction, the biographies, the poetry, the philosophy. I recommend it to all who are interested in learning more about Chesterton or even for those well familiar with his writing who want to reminisce.

G.K. Chesterton is what I call a student of people and is able to put in words that put light into the mind of others. From children, to authors, to Christianity, his words remain powerful for us today. Here are some of my favorites.

Men have not got tired of Christianity; they have never found enough Christianity to get tired of. It has been found difficult and left untried.

A good musician loves being a musician, the musician loves music.

Every new religion bores us with the same stale rhetoric and about closer fellowship and the higher life.

In all legends men have thought of women as sublime separately but horrible in a herd.

Working in wood is the supreme example of creation; creation in a material which resists just enough and not iota too much. It was surely on wonder that the greatest who ever wore the form of man was a carpenter.

The two facts which attract almost every normal person to children are, first they are very serious, and secondly that they in consequence very happy. ..It is the gravity of astonishment at the universe, and astonishment at the universe is not mysticism, but a transcendent common sense.

We often hear grown up people comparing of having to hang about a railway station and wait for a train. Did you ever hear a small boy complain of having to hang about a railway station and wait for a train. No: for to him to be inside a railway station is to be inside a cavern of wonder and a palace of poetical Pleasure.

The whole case for Christianity is that a man who is dependent upon the luxuries of this life is a corrupt man, spiritually corrupt, politically corrupt, and financially corrupt. There is one thing that Christ and all the Christian saints have said with a sort of savage monotony. They have said simply that to be rich is to be in peculiar danger of moral wreck.

A Special Thank you to Dover Publications and Netgalley for ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.

Not long after reading Chesterton's brilliant The Man Who Was Thursday I stumbled across Blaisdell's G.K. Chesterton Quotes on Netgalley. Part of the genius of Chesterton's prose was his strong sense of character and independence. So why wouldn't I want to read a book full of his quotes? Thanks to Netgalley and Dover Publications for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

G.K. Chesterton was an Absurdist writer and a biographer, a Christian and seemingly a socialist. He wrote about almost anything, as long as it interested him, and he did so well. This book of quotes covers his whole career and does really well in showing from when and where the quote is. The main challenge that faced Blaisdell was how to bring this selection of quotes together in a way that doesn't feel uterly random and, maybe, even pointless. In this book, though, the quotes seem to naturally follow one another by theme and it means that it is actually interesting to keep reading them to see how Chesterton's mind changed throughout the years.

It's always an interesting question to consider to what extent personal opinion is interesting. It is a question I often come back to when writing for this blog as well. A personal opinion, it seems, is only interesting if it is well-informed, outside of the box or comes from someone famous. In this case, Chesterton is a bit of all of those. His opinions are interesting because some of them are out there, others because he is in a better position than us to judge and others simply because they come from him. His writing is funny, insightful and at times slightly ridiculous and his quotes reflect that. Some of them hit really deep, showing his dedication to what he is writing about, but also his willingness to mock himself and those around us.

If you're a fan of Chesterton's writing than Blaisdell's quote collection will be great for you. Blaisdell's own introduction is also very interesting. G.K. Chesterton Quotes is the kind of book that would do great on a coffee table, ready to be picked up and browsed through at random times.