Inspirational Quotes by G.K. Chesterton
“CHAPTER XXIX HAS AN INTRODUCTORY ACCOUNT OF THE INMATES OF THE HOUSE, TO WHICH OLIVER RESORTED”
“The Crow lifted up her head and began to caw her best, but the moment she opened her mouth the piece of cheese fell to the ground, only to be snapped up by Master Fox. "That will do," said he. "That was all I wanted. In exchange for your cheese I will give you a piece of advice for the future ."Do not trust flatterers.”
“CHAPTER XXXVI IS A VERY SHORT ONE, AND MAY APPEAR OF NO GREAT IMPORTANCE IN ITS PLACE. BUT IT SHOULD BE READ NOTWITHSTANDING, AS A SEQUEL TO THE LAST, AND A KEY TO ONE THAT WILL FOLLOW WHEN ITS TIME ARRIVES”
“I lay ill through several weeks, and the usual tenor of my life became like an old remembrance. But this was not the effect of time, so much as of the change in all my habits, made by the helplessness and inaction of a sick-room. Before I had been confined to it many days, everything else seemed to have retired into a remote distance, where there was little or no separation between the various stages of my life which had been really divided by years. In falling ill, I seemed to have crossed a dark lake, and to have left all my experiences, mingled together by the great distance, on the healthy shore… I had never known before how short life really was, and into how small a space the mind could put it. While I was very ill, the way in which these divisions of time became confused with one another, distressed my mind exceedingly. At once a child, an elder girl, and the little woman I had been so happy as, I was not only oppressed by cares and difficulties adapted to each station, but by the great perplexity of endlessly trying to reconcile them.”
topics: illness
“I have brought it all on myself! Why could I not have been contented to labor with my companions, and not wish to be idle all the day like that useless little Lapdog!”
“Jarndyce and Jarndyce has passed into a joke. That is the only good that has ever come of it.”
topics: dark-humor
“Dead, your Majesty. Dead, my lords and gentlemen. Dead, Right Reverends and Wrong Reverends of every order. Dead, men and women, born with Heavenly compassion in your hearts. And dying thus around us, every day.”
“CHAPTER XLI CONTAINING FRESH DISCOVERIES, AND SHEWING THAT SURPRISES, LIKE MISFORTUNES, SELDOM COME ALONE”
“If you are wise you won’t be deceived by the innocent airs of those whom you have once found to be dangerous.”
“The mental agony I have suffered, during the last two days, wrings from me the avowal to you of a passion which, as you well know, is not one of yesterday, nor one I have lightly formed. On Rose, sweet, gentle girl! my heart is set, as firmly as ever heart of man was set on woman. I have no thought, no view, no hope in life, beyond her; and if you oppose me in this great stake, you take my peace and happiness in your hands, and cast them to the wind. Mother, think better of this, and of me, and do not disregard the happiness of which you seem to think so little.”
“the appointed day came, the birds assembled before Jupiter's throne; and, after passing them in review, he was about to make the Jackdaw king, when all the rest set upon the king-elect, stripped him of his borrowed plumes, and exposed him for the Jackdaw that he was.”
“Hi, Lady Jane!" A large grey cat leaped from some neighbouring shelf on his shoulder and startled us all.”
“CHAPTER XXXVII IN WHICH THE READER MAY PERCEIVE A CONTRAST, NOT UNCOMMON IN MATRIMONIAL CASES”
“It is said that the children of the very poor are not brought up, but dragged up.”
“We have none of us long to wait for Death. Patience, patience! He'll be here soon enough for us all.”
topics: death
“Who am I," cried Miss Havisham, striking her stick upon the floor and flashing into wrath so suddenly that Estella glanced up at her in surprise, "who am I, for God's sake, that I should be kind?”
“E voltandosi mi disse con il suo tono provocante e con la sua faccia quasi sulla mia: "Be'?" "Be', signorina?" risposi, quasi cadendo su di lei, ma fermandomi in tempo. Si fermò a guardarmi e, naturalmente, anch'io la guardai. "Sono bella?" "Sì, credo proprio che lei sia molto bella." "Sono insolente?" "Non quanto lo è stata l'ultima volta" dissi io. "Non come allora?" "No." S'infiammò tutta nel fare l'ultima domanda e, quando le risposi, mi schiaffeggiò con tutta la forza che aveva. "E ora?" domandò. "Volgare mostriciattolo, che cosa ne pensi ora?" "Non glielo posso dire." "Perché certamente lo andrai a dire di sopra, vero?" "No," dissi "non per questo." "Perché non piangi di nuovo, piccolo demonio?" "Perché non piangerò mai più per lei" dissi. Il che, suppongo, fu la più falsa dichiarazione che sia mai stata fatta; perché dentro di me stavo già piangendo per lei, e so quel che so del dolore che lei mi costò in seguito.”
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Gilbert Keith Chesterton was one of the most influential English writers of the 20th century. His prolific and diverse output included journalism, philosophy, poetry, biography, Christian apologetics, fantasy and detective fiction.
Chesterton has been called the "prince of paradox". Time magazine, in a review of a biography of Chesterton, observed of his writing style: "Whenever possible Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories—first carefully turning them inside out.