49 quotes
English author and Christian apologist (1874–1936)
“Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances that we know to be desperate.”
"The man who kills a man kills a man.The man who kills himself kills all men.As far as he is concerned, he wipes out the world."
on Death
"We are perishing for lack of wonder, not for lack of wonders."
on Curiosity
"Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed."
on Courage
"We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders."
on Philosophy
"Are you a devil?""I am a man," answered Father Brown gravely; "and therefore have all devils in my heart."
on Identity
"How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it."
on Self Awareness
"Happiness is not only a hope, but also in some strange manner a memory ... we are all kings in exile."
on Happiness
"Unless a man becomes the enemy of an evil, he will not even become its slave but rather its champion."
on Ethics
"Bad is so bad, that we cannot but think good an accident; good is so good, that we feel certain that evil could be explained."
"The real great man is the man who makes every man feel great."
on Leadership
"There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people."
"Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated."
on Democracy
"For children are innocent and love justice, while most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy."
on Justice
"The books that influence the world are those that it has not read."
on Writing
"When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude."
on Gratitude
"It was his home now. But it could not be his home till he had gone from it and returned to it. Now he was the Prodigal Son."
on Family
"The crux and crisis is that man found it natural to worship, even natural to worship unnatural things"
on Religion
"There is no way in which a man can earn a star or deserve a sunset."
"She had never really listened to anyone in her life; which, some said, was why she had survived."
on Life
"There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less"
