Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes About Earth

• The true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Fun, Inspirational Life, Garden

  "All Things Considered". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, 1908.

• On the third day the friends of Christ coming at daybreak to the place found the grave empty and the stone rolled away. In varying ways they realized the new wonder; but even they hardly realized that the world had died in the night. What they were looking at was the first day of a new creation, with a new heaven and a new earth; and in a semblance of the gardener God walked again in the garden, in the cool not of the evening but of the dawn.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Night, Garden, Heaven

• We should always endeavor to wonder at the permanent thing, not at the mere exception. We should be startled by the sun, and not by the eclipse. We should wonder less at the earthquake, and wonder more at the earth.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Earthquakes, Sun, Wonder

• There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Inspirational, Earth, Artistic Temperament

  Heretics (1905) ch. 3

• Of all modern notions, the worst is this: that domesticity is dull. Inside the home, they say, is dead decorum and routine; outside is adventure and variety. But the truth is that the home is the only place of liberty, the only spot on earth where a man can alter arrangements suddenly, make an experiment or indulge in a whim. The home is not the one tame place in a world of adventure; it is the one wild place in a world of rules and set tasks.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Home, Adventure, Men

• For us who live in cities Nature is not natural. Nature is supernatural. Just as monks watched and strove to get a glimpse of heaven, so we watch and strive to get a glimpse of earth. It is as if men had cake and wine every day but were sometimes allowed common bread.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Nature, Wine, Men

• I still hold. . .that the suburbs ought to be either glorified by romance and religion or else destroyed by fire from heaven, or even by firebrands from the earth.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Fire, Romance, Heaven

• If seeds in the black earth can turn into such beautiful roses, what might not the heart of man become in its long journey toward the stars?

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Beautiful, Hope, Stars

• But there is in everything a reasonable division of labour. I have written the book, and nothing on earth would induce me to read it.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Book, Division, Earth

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.7, Simon and Schuster

• A mystic is a man who separates heaven and earth even if he enjoys them both.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Men, Heaven, Earth

  "William Blake". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, 1920.

• The one perfectly divine thing, the one glimpse of God's paradise given on earth, is to fight a losing battle - and not lose it.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Fighting, Battle, Glimpse

• [Buddhism and Christianity] are in one sense parallel and equal; as a mound and a hollow, as a valley and a hill. There is a sense in which that sublime despair is the only alternative to that divine audacity. It is even true that the truly spiritual and intellectual man sees it as sort of dilemma; a very hard and terrible choice. There is little else on earth that can compare with these for completeness. And he who does not climb the mountain of Christ does indeed fall into the abyss of Buddha.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Spiritual, Fall, Buddhism

• Every one on this earth should believe, amid whatever madness or moral failure, that his life and temperament have some object on the earth. Every one on the earth should believe that he has something to give to the world which cannot otherwise be given.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Believe, Giving, World

• There is always in the healthy mind an obscure prompting that religion teaches us rather to dig than to climb; that if we could once understand the common clay of earth we should understand everything. Similarly, we have the sentiment that if we could destroy custom at a blow and see the stars as a child sees them, we should need no other apocalypse. This is the great truth which has always lain at the back of baby-worship, and which will support it to the end.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Baby, Stars, Children

  "The Defendant". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, 1901.

• Every one on the earth should believe that he has something to give to the world which cannot otherwise be given.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Believe, Giving, World

• Earth will grow worse till men redeem it, And wars more evil, ere all wars cease.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  War, Men, Evil

  Gilbert Keith Chesterton, “A Song Of Defeat”

• It is not only possible to say a great deal in praise of play; it is really possible to say the highest things in praise of it. It might reasonably be maintained that the true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Garden, Play, Heaven

  "All Things Considered". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, 1908.

• Men can construct a science with very few instruments, or with very plain instruments; but no one on earth could construct a science with unreliable instruments. A man might work out the whole of mathematics with a handful of pebbles, but not with a handful of clay which was always falling apart into new fragments, and falling together into new combinations. A man might measure heaven and earth with a reed, but not with a growing reed.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Fall, Men, Work Out

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.180, Simon and Schuster

• There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person. Nothing is more keenly required than a defence of bores. When Byron divided humanity into the bores and bored, he omitted to notice that the higher qualities exist entirely in the bores, the lower qualities in the bored, among whom he counted himself. The bore, by his starry enthusiasm, his solemn happiness, may, in some sense, have proved himself poetical. The bored has certainly proved himself prosaic.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Boredom, Humanity, Quality

  1905 Heretics, ch.3.

• To be born into this earth is to be born into uncongenial surroundings, hence to be born into a romance.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Romance, Earth, Born

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.200, Simon and Schuster

• It might reasonably be maintained that the true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground. To be at last in such secure innocence that one can juggle with the universe and the stars, to be so good that one can treat everything as a joke - that may be, perhaps, the real end and final holiday of human souls.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Faith, Stars, Real

  "All Things Considered". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, 1908.

• O God of earth and altar,
  Bow down and hear our cry,
  Our earthly rulers falter,
  Our people drift and die;
  The walls of gold entomb us,
  The swords of scorn divide,
  Take not thy thunder from us,
  But take away our pride.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Wall, Pride, People

  Gilbert Keith Chesterton, “A Hymn”

• All my authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Bible, Heaven, Jesus Christ

• The rich are the scum of the earth in every country.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Country, Scum Of The Earth, Rich

  'The Flying Inn' (1914) ch. 15

• Destiny is but a phrase of the weak human heart - the dark apology for every error. The strong and virtuous admit no destiny. On earth conscience guides; in heaven God watches. And destiny is but the phantom we invoke to silence the one and dethrone the other.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Strong, Heart, Apology

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