Quote of the Day

"Every man speaks of public opinion, and means by public opinion, public opinion minus his opinion."
                                     - G K Chesterton (Heretics)

Quote of the Day

"A room without books is like a body without a soul."
         
                                             - G K Chesterton 

Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was a prolific English critic and author of verse, essays, novels, and short stories. He is probably best known for his series about the priest-detective Father Brown who appeared in 50 stories. Between 1900 and 1936 Chesterton published some one hundred books. Born in London, Chesterton was educated at St. Paul’s, but never went to college. He went to art school. In 1900, he was asked to contribute a few magazine articles on art criticism, and went on to become one of the most prolific writers of all time. He wrote a hundred books, contributions to 200 more, hundreds of poems, including the epic Ballad of the White Horse, five plays, five novels, and some two hundred short stories, including a popular series featuring the priest-detective, Father Brown. 

In spite of his literary accomplishments, he considered himself primarily a journalist. He wrote over 4000 newspaper essays, including 30 years worth of weekly columns for the Illustrated London News, and 13 years of weekly columns for the Daily News. He also edited his own newspaper, G.K.’s Weekly. (To put it into perspective, four thousand essays is the equivalent of writing an essay a day, every day, for 11 years. If you’re not impressed, try it some time. But they have to be good essays – all of them – as funny as they are serious, and as readable and rewarding a century after you’ve written them.)



Chesterton was equally at ease with literary and social criticism, history, politics, economics, philosophy, and theology. His style is unmistakable, always marked by humility, consistency, paradox, wit, and wonder. His writing remains as timely and as timeless today as when it first appeared, even though much of it was published in throw away papers.

The Donkey - G. K. Chesterton

When fishes flew and forests walked
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born;

With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant wings,
The devil's walking parody
On all four-footed things.

The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
I keep my secret still.

Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
And palms before my feet.

Quote of the Day (Take 2)

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

– G. K. Chesterton

Quote of the Day

Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese. Alarms and Discursions (1910)    G K Chesterton

Quote of the Day

"We ought to be interested in that darkest and most real part of a man in which dwell not the vices that he does not display, but the virtues that he cannot."
  
                                                 – G K Chesterton         

Quote of the Day

"There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less."
                           — G.K. Chesterton