Inspirational Quotes by G.K. Chesterton

“Before I draw nearer to that stone to which you point,” said Scrooge, “answer me one question. Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only?” Still the Ghost pointed downward to the grave by which it stood. “Men’s courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead,” said Scrooge. “But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me!”

“No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty.”

“His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him. He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us!”

“Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life's misused oppurtunities!”

“Molte sono le cose dalle quali io avrei potuto trarre del bene, e invece non ho saputo approfittarne, è vero” rispose il nipote. “E il Natale è una di quelle. Ma sono sicuro di aver sempre pensato al Natale, quando si avvicina, come a un giorno felice (a parte la venerazione dovuta alla sua sacra origine anche se di ciò si può non tener conto), un giorno di allegria, di bontà, di gentilezza, di indulgenza, di carità, l’unico momento nel lungo corso dell'anno nel quale uomini e donne sembrano disposti ad aprire liberamente il proprio cuore, disposti a pensare ai loro inferiori non come a creature di un’altra specie destinate a un altro cammino, ma come a compagni di viaggio, del medesimo viaggio verso la morte. E perciò, zio, benché non abbia mai portato una briciola d’oro o di argento nelle mie tasche, credo che il Natale mi abbia sempre fatto del bene, e sempre me ne farà; dico dunque: Sia benedetto!”.”

“For again Scrooge saw himself. He was older now, a man in the prime of life. His face had not the harsh and rigid lines of later years, but it had begun to wear the signs of care and avarice. There was an eager, greedy, restless motion in the eye, which showed the passion that had taken root, and where the shadow of the growing tree would fall.”

“-La tua stessa coscienza ti dice che non sei più quello che eri, io invece sono rimasta la stessa, e mi rendo conto che tutto quello che ci prometteva felicità quando avevamo gli stessi sentimenti è diventato presagio d'infelicità ora che siamo diversi. Quanto sovente e con quanta pena abbia pensato ciò non voglio dirtelo. E' sufficiente che vi abbia pensato e che sia in grado ora di renderti la tua libertà. -Te l'ho forse mai chiesta? -A parole no, mai. - E in quale modo allora? -Mutando il tuo carattere, il tuo umore, la tua atmosfera di vita, le tue speranze, tutto ciò che rendeva il mio amore bello ai tuoi occhi. Se nulla mai ci fosse stato fra di noi, dimmi, mi sceglieresti ancora, cercheresti ancora di conquistarmi? Oh no, certo!”

“It isn’t that,” said Scrooge, heated by the remark, and speaking unconsciously like his former, not his latter, self. “It isn’t that, Spirit. He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count ’em up: what then? The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.”

“Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode!”

“Even the blind men’s dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they said, 'No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!”

“Oh, captive, bound, and double-chained!” cried the phantom, “who does not understand the toll of a lifetime of incessant labor by man, an immortal creature! For this flesh must pass into eternity before the good of which it is capable can be understood. How tragic not to know that a Christian spirit working kindly in its little realm of influence, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for the vast opportunities it has to be useful. Not to know that no regret can ever make amends for one missed life’s opportunity! Yet such was I! Oh, such was I!”

“Mr. Tulkinghorn is always the same, speechless repository of noble confidences, so oddly out of place and yet so perfectly at home.”

“The same mistake presents itself to me, in one shape or other, at every turn,' said brother Charles. 'Parents who never showed their love, complain of want of natural affection in their children; children who never showed their duty, complain of want of natural feeling in their parents; law-makers who find both so miserable that their affections have never had enough of life's sun to develop them, are loud in their moralisings over parents and children too, and cry that the very ties of nature are disregarded. Natural affections and instincts, my dear sir, are the most beautiful of the Almighty's works, but like other beautiful works of His, they must be reared and fostered, or it is as natural that they should be wholly obscured, and that new feelings should usurp their place, as it is that the sweetest productions of the earth, left untended, should be choked with weeds and briers. I wish we could be brought to consider this, and remembering natural obligations a little more at the right time, talk about them a little less at the wrong one.”

“I hope,' said Mr. Pickwick, 'that our volatile friend is committing no absurdities in that dickey behind.”

“I don't know whether any of you, gentlemen, ever partook of a real substantial hospitable Scotch breakfast, and then went out to a slight lunch of a bushel of oysters, a dozen or so of bottled ale, and a noggin or two of whiskey to close up with. If you ever did, you will agree with me that it requires a pretty strong head to go out to dinner and supper afterwards.”

“He says, no varnish can hide the grain of the wood, and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will express itself.”

“As to forming any plan for the future, I could as soon have formed an elephant.”

“I am afraid to think of what I might have done, on requirement, in the secrecy of my terror.”

“Mrs. Joe war eine sehr reinliche Hausfrau, doch sie verstand sich ausnehmend gut darauf, ihre Reinlichkeit bequemer und unerträglicher zu machen, als jeder Schmutz gewesen wäre. Die Reinlichkeit ist der Gottesfurcht verwandt, und manche verfahren mit ihrer Religion ganz genauso.”

“conclusions:”