A good novel tells us the truth about its hero, but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

All architecture is great architecture after sunset; perhaps architecture is really a nocturnal art, like the art of fireworks.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

All slang is metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

A man who says that no patriot should attack the war until it is over... is saying no good son should warn his mother of a cliff until she has fallen.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

A teacher who is not dogmatic is simply a teacher who is not teaching.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

A woman uses her intelligence to find reasons to support her intuition.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Brave men are all vertebrates they have their softness on the surface and their toughness in the middle.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton