Listers, SPL presents a small snapshot of the extraordinary intellect and wit of Gilbert Keith Chesterton. His works brim with antidotes, parables, paradoxes, and witticisms. Even over the most mundane of subjects, he is a joy to read.

On Fairy Tales:

“Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”

On Living the Life:

“Just going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in your garage makes you a car.”

On a Poetic Lacuna:

“Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.”

On Literature:

“Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.”

On Soldiers of Charity:

“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”

On Love:

“The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.”

On the Occasion of Being Absentminded:

“I am not absentminded. It is the presence of mind that makes me unaware of everything else.”

On the Occasion of a Dinner Party:

“There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people.”

Our Neighbors:

“The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.”

On Christianity:

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”

On Education:

“Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.”

An Antidote to Materialism:

“There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.”

On Literary Critique:

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