Gilbert K. Chesterton Simple Quotations

People wonder why the novel is the most popular form of literature; people wonder why it is read more than books of science or books of metaphysics. The reason is very simple; it is merely that the novel is more true than they are.

There is no obligation on us to be richer, or busier, or more efficient, or more productive, or more progressive, or any way worldlier or wealthier, if it does not make us happier.

To be simple is the best thing in the world; to be modest is the next best thing. I am not sure about being quiet.

To be simple is the best thing in the world.

Every work of art has one indispensable mark ... the center of it is simple, however much the fulfillment may be complicated.

Some of the most frantic lies on the face of life are told with modesty and restraint; for the simple reason that only modesty and restraint will save them.

Physical science is like simple addition: it is either infallible or it is false.

The academic mind reflects infinity, and is full of light by the simple process of being shallow and standing still.

One of the chief uses of religion is that it makes us remember our coming from darkness, the simple fact that we are created.

I say that a man must be certain of his morality for the simple reason that he has to suffer for it.

The materialist theory of history, that all politics and ethics are the expression of economics, is a very simple fallacy indeed. It consists simply of confusing the necessary conditions of life with the normal preoccupations of life, that are quite a different thing. It is like saying that because a man can only walk about on two legs, therefore he never walks about except to buy shoes and stockings.

The simple sense of wonder at the shapes of things, and at their exuberant independence of our intellectual standards and our trivial definitions, is the basis of spirituality.