Inspirational Quotes by G.K. Chesterton

“and to the left, very little altered if at all, except that the walls were lowered when the place got free; will look upon rooms in which the debtors lived; and will stand among the crowding ghosts of many miserable years. In the Preface to Bleak House I remarked”

“It was a dark night, though the full moon rose as I left the enclosed lands, and passed out upon the marshes. Beyond their dark line there was a ribbon of clear sky, hardly broad enough to hold the red large moon. In a few minutes she had ascended out of that clear field, in among the piled mountains of cloud.”

“You find us, Copperfield,’ said Mr Micawber, with one eye on Traddles, ‘at present established, on what may be designated as a small and unassuming scale; but, you are aware that I have, in the course of my career, surmounted difficulties, and conquered obstacles.”

“However, the Bleeding Hearts were kind hearts; and when they saw the little fellow cheerily limping about with a good-humoured face, doing no harm, drawing no knives, committing no outrageous immoralities, living chiefly on farinaceous and milk diet, and playing with Mrs Plornish's children of an evening, they began to think that although he could never hope to be an Englishman, still it would be hard to visit that affliction on his head. They began to accommodate themselves to his level, calling him 'Mr Baptist,' but treating him like a baby, and laughing immoderately at his lively gestures and his childish English—more, because he didn't mind it, and laughed too. They spoke to him in very loud voices as if he were stone deaf. They constructed sentences, by way of teaching him the language in its purity, such as were addressed by the savages to Captain Cook, or by Friday to Robinson Crusoe. Mrs Plornish was particularly ingenious in this art; and attained so much celebrity for saying 'Me ope you leg well soon,' that it was considered in the Yard but a very short remove indeed from speaking Italian. Even Mrs Plornish herself began to think that she had a natural call towards that language. As he became more popular, household objects were brought into requisition for his instruction in a copious vocabulary; and whenever he appeared in the Yard ladies would fly out at their doors crying 'Mr Baptist—tea-pot!' 'Mr Baptist—dust-pan!' 'Mr Baptist—flour-dredger!' 'Mr Baptist—coffee-biggin!' At the same time exhibiting those articles, and penetrating him with a sense of the appalling difficulties of the Anglo-Saxon tongue.”

“extraneous”

“Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it.”

“Drink because you are happy, but never because you are miserable.”

“Shall I tell you where the men are who believe most in themselves? For I can tell you. I know of men who believe in themselves more colossally than Napoleon or Caesar. I know where flames the fixed star of certainty and success. I can guide you to the thrones of the Super-men. The men who really believe in themselves are all in lunatic asylums.”

“They all gave place when the signing was done, and Little Dorrit and her husband walked out of the church alone. They paused for a moment on the steps of the portico, looking at the fresh perspective of the street in the autumn morning sun's bright rays, and then went down. Went down into a modest life of usefulness and happiness. Went down to give a mother's care, in the fulness of time, to Fanny's neglected children no less than to their own,”

“Enquanto a visão do Céu for mudando constantemente, a visão da Terra permanecerá sempre a mesma. Nenhum ideal dura o tempo suficiente para poder ser posto em prática, mesmo que parcialmente. Os jovens modernos nunca mudarão o ambiente em que vivem, porque estão sempre mudando de ideias. [...] Não importa quantas vezes a Humanidade fracasse ao buscar o seu ideal, porque, nesse caso, todos os seus antigos insucessos lhe serão proveitosos. Porém, será terrível se a Humanidade mudar muitas vezes de ideal, pois então todos os seus antigos insucessos serão infrutíferos.”

“Zar mislite kako se ja nemam pravo boriti za Notting Hill, Vi, čija se engleska vlada tako često borila za budalaštine? Ako, kao što Vaši bogati prijatelji tvrde, nema bogova, a nebo iznad nas je mračno, za što bi se drugo čovjek trebao boriti, nego za mjesto koje je bilo rajski vrt njegovog djetinjstva i kratki raj njegove prve ljubavi? Ako ni hramovi, niti sveta pisma nisu sveta, što je sveto ako čovjekova vlastita mladost nije sveta?”

“To introduce an ethic which makes that fidelity or infidelity vary with some calculation about heredity is that rarest of all things, a revolution that has not happened before.”

“Time and tide will wait for no man,”

“But the point is that a story is exciting because it has in it so strong an element of will, of what theology calls free-will. You cannot finish a sum how you like. But you can finish a story how you like. When somebody discovered the Differential Calculus there was only one Differential Calculus he could discover. But when Shakespeare killed Romeo he might have married him to Juliet’s old nurse if he had felt inclined. And Christendom has excelled in the narrative romance exactly because it has insisted on the theological free-will.”

“la función policiaca: saquea al pobre, y vigila cautelosamente al infortunado. En cambio, ha abandonado lo más noble de la función: el castigo de los traidores poderosos en el Estado;”

“Whatever else men have believed, they have all believed that there is something the matter with mankind. This sense of sin has made it impossible to be natural and have no clothes, just as it has made it impossible to be natural and have no laws. But”

“Quale esempio eccellente del potere dell'abito fu il piccolo Oliver Twist! Avvolto nella coperta che fino a quel momento era stata la sua sola protezione, sarebbe potuto essere tanto il figlio di un nobile, quanto il figlio di un accattone; anche l'estraneo più sicuro di sé avrebbe trovato difficile stabilire quale fosse il suo posto nella società. Ma, dopo che era stato infagottato nelle vecchie fasce di cotone, ingiallite a furia di essere adoperate, venne a essere in tal modo segnato, etichettato e destinato al proprio posto: un bambino a carico della parrocchia, un orfano dell'ospizio, l'umile servo mezzo morto di fame la cui sorte a questo mondo sarebbe stata quella di essere maltrattato e disprezzato da tutti, e mai compatito da nessuno.”

“Old Clem! With a thump and a sound – Old Clem! Beat it out, beat it out – Old Clem! With a clink for the stout – Old Clem! Blow the fire, blow the fire – Old Clem! Roaring dryer, soaring higher – Old Clem!”

“Oh, captive, bound, and double-ironed," cried the phantom, "not to know, that ages of incessant labour by immortal creatures, for this earth must pass into eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is all developed. Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life's opportunities misused! Yet such was I! Oh! such was I!”

“than any communications”