Inspirational Quotes by G.K. Chesterton

“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.”

“I will not merely say that this story is true: because, as you will soon see, it is all truth and no story. It has no explanation and no conclusion; it is, like most of the other things we encounter in life, a fragment of something else which would be intensely exciting if it were not too large to be seen. For the perplexity of life arises from there being too many interesting things in it for us to be interested properly in any of them; what we call its triviality is really the tag-ends of numberless tales; ordinary and unmeaning existence is like ten thousand thrilling detective stories mixed up with a spoon.”

“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,”

“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.”

“And an intellectual formula is the only thing that can create a communication that does not depend on mere blood, class, or capricious sympathy”

“old chap.”

“She submitted to walk slowly on, with downcast eyes. He put her hand to his lips, and she quietly drew it away. ‘Will you walk beside me, Mr Wrayburn, and not touch me?’ For, his arm was already stealing round her waist. She stopped again, and gave him an earnest supplicating look. ‘Well, Lizzie, well!’ said he, in an easy way though ill at ease with himself ‘don’t be unhappy, don’t be reproachful.’ ‘I cannot help being unhappy, but I do not mean to be reproachful. Mr Wrayburn, I implore you to go away from this neighbourhood, to-morrow morning.’ ‘Lizzie, Lizzie, Lizzie!’ he remonstrated. ‘As well be reproachful as wholly unreasonable. I can’t go away.’ ‘Why not?’ ‘Faith!’ said Eugene in his airily candid manner. ‘Because you won’t let me. Mind! I don’t mean to be reproachful either. I don’t complain that you design to keep me here. But you do it, you do it.’ ‘Will you walk beside me, and not touch me;’ for, his arm was coming about her again; ‘while I speak to you very seriously, Mr Wrayburn?’ ‘I will do anything within the limits of possibility, for you, Lizzie,’ he answered with pleasant gaiety as he folded his arms. ‘See here! Napoleon Buonaparte at St Helena.’ ‘When you spoke to me as I came from the Mill the night before last,’ said Lizzie, fixing her eyes upon him with the look of supplication which troubled his better nature, ‘you told me that you were much surprised to see me, and that you were on a solitary fishing excursion. Was it true?’ ‘It was not,’ replied Eugene composedly, ‘in the least true. I came here, because I had information that I should find you here.’ ‘Can you imagine why I left London, Mr Wrayburn?’ ‘I am afraid, Lizzie,’ he openly answered, ‘that you left London to get rid of me. It is not flattering to my self-love, but I am afraid you did.’ ‘I did.’ ‘How could you be so cruel?’ ‘O Mr Wrayburn,’ she answered, suddenly breaking into tears, ‘is the cruelty on my side! O Mr Wrayburn, Mr Wrayburn, is there no cruelty in your being here to-night!’ ‘In the name of all that’s good—and that is not conjuring you in my own name, for Heaven knows I am not good’—said Eugene, ‘don’t be distressed!’ ‘What else can I be, when I know the distance and the difference between us? What else can I be, when to tell me why you came here, is to put me to shame!’ said Lizzie, covering her face. He looked at her with a real sentiment of remorseful tenderness and pity. It was not strong enough to impell him to sacrifice himself and spare her, but it was a strong emotion. ‘Lizzie! I never thought before, that there was a woman in the world who could affect me so much by saying so little. But don’t be hard in your construction of me. You don’t know what my state of mind towards you is. You don’t know how you haunt me and bewilder me. You don’t know how the cursed carelessness that is over-officious in helping me at every other turning of my life, won’t help me here. You have struck it dead, I think, and I sometimes almost wish you had struck me dead along with it.”

“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”

“Y es un hecho notorio no sólo en lo moral sino también en lo estético. El ídolo americano presentaba un aspecto tan repugnante como les fue posible, de la misma manera que la imagen griega era tan hermosa como había sido posible. Buscaban el secreto del poder, obrando contra su propia naturaleza y la naturaleza de las cosas. Y parecía que aspiraban a llegar algún día a tallar en oro, granito o en la oscura madera rojiza de los bosques, un rostro que liaría romper en pedazos el mismo espejo de los ciclos. En cualquier caso, está claro que la repintada y dorada civilización de América tropical consintió sistemáticamente en los sacrificios humanos. Y, sin embargo, por lo que sé, no está nada claro que los esquimales consintieran alguna vez en los sacrificios humanos. No estaban suficientemente civilizados.”

“Why I hoarded up this last wretched little rag of hope that was rent and given to the winds, how do I know! Why did you who read this , commit that not dissimilar inconsistency of your own, last year, last month, last week?”

“Something Wrong Somewhere”

“like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child. And his name is DAVID COPPERFIELD.”

“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!”

“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!”

“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.”

“than any communications”

“The Shoemaker Book the Second—the Golden Thread I. Five Years Later II. A Sight”

“Plea XXI. Echoing Footsteps XXII. The Sea Still Rises XXIII. Fire Rises XXIV. Drawn to the Loadstone Rock Book”