Inspirational Quotes by G.K. Chesterton

“I am a man, and therefore have all devils in my heart.”

“I caught him, with an unseen hook and an invisible line which is long enough to let him wander to the ends of the world, and still to bring him back with a twitch upon the thread.”

“Most people either say that they agree with Bernard Shaw or that they do not understand him. I am the only person who understands him, and I do not agree with him.               G. K. C.”

“Something Wrong Somewhere”

“had been sitting with his face turned towards the fire: giving the palms of his hands a warm and a rub alternately. As the young woman spoke, he”

“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!”

“How can I? Tut, don’t I know?” she added in the same breath,”

“men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.”

“This history must sometimes see with Little Dorrit's eyes, and shall begin that course by seeing him.”

“These two ignorant and unpolished people had guided themselves so far on in their journey of life, by a religious sense of duty and desire to do right. Ten thousand weaknesses and absurdities might have been detected in the breasts of both; ten thousand vanities additional, possibly, in the breast of the woman. But the hard wrathful and sordid nature that had wrung as much work out of them as could be got in their best days, for as little money as could be paid to hurry on their worst, had never been so warped but that it knew their moral straightness and respected it. In its own despite, in a constant conflict with itself and them, it had done so. And this is the eternal law. For, Evil often stops short at itself and dies with the doer of it; but Good, never.”

“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”

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,”

“Tradesman XV. Knitting XVI. Still Knitting XVII. One Night XVIII. Nine Days XIX.”

“I T WAS THE BEST OF TIMES, IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES, IT WAS THE AGE OF wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—”

“The Knitting Done XV. The Footsteps Die Out For Ever Book the First—Recalled to Life”

“with a bowl of battered small coins before her, as much defaced and beaten out of their original impress as the small coinage of humanity from whose ragged pockets they had come.”

“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.”

“Our official detectives may blunder in the matter of intelligence, but never in that of courage. Gregson climbed the stair to arrest this desperate murderer with the same absolutely quiet and businesslike bearing with which he would have ascended the official staircase of Scotland Yard. The Pinkerton man had tried to push past him, but Gregson had firmly elbowed him back. London dangers were the privilege of the London force.”