Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Famous quotes containing the words gilbert keith chesterton, keith chesterton, gilbert keith, gilbert, keith and/or chesterton:

    The vulgar man is always the most distinguished, for the very desire to be distinguished is vulgar.
    Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)

    Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes—our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking around.
    —Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)

    They have given us into the hand of new unhappy lords,
    Lords without anger and honour, who dare not carry their swords.
    They fight by shuffling papers; they have bright dead alien eyes;
    They look at our labour and laughter as a tired man looks at flies.
    Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)

    Bless your heart, they don’t mind—they’re exceedingly
    kind—
    They don’t blame you—as long as you’re funny!
    —Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)

    Art consists of limitation.... The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame.
    —Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)

    A building is akin to dogma; it is insolent, like dogma. Whether or no it is permanent, it claims permanence, like a dogma. People ask why we have no typical architecture of the modern world, like impressionism in painting. Surely it is obviously because we have not enough dogmas; we cannot bear to see anything in the sky that is solid and enduring, anything in the sky that does not change like the clouds of the sky.
    —Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)