Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes About Fairy Tales

• Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Baby, Children, Dragons

  "Tremendous Trifles". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, 1909.

• [Fairy tales] make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Running, Wine, Rivers

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.38, Simon and Schuster

• There is the great lesson of 'Beauty and the Beast,' that a thing must be loved before it is lovable.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Lessons, Fairytale, Fairy Tale

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.35, Simon and Schuster

• Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Hope, Children, Dragons

• If you happen to read fairy tales, you will observe that one idea runs from one end of them to the other--the idea that peace and happiness can only exist on some condition. This idea, which is the core of ethics, is the core of the nursery-tales.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Running, Ideas, Nurse

• The supreme adventure is being born. There we do walk suddenly into a splendid and startling trap... When we step into the family, by the act of being born, we do step into a world which is incalculable, into a world which has its own strange laws, into a world which could do without us, into a world we have not made. In other words, when we step into the family we step into a fairy-tale.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Adventure, Law, Steps

  "Heretics". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, Chapter XIV: "On Certain Modern Writers and the Institution of the Family", 1905.

• In the fairy tale, an incomprehensible happiness rests upon an incomprehensible condition. A box is opened and all evils fly out. A word is forgotten and cities perish. A lamp is lit and love flies away. An apple is eaten and the hope of God is gone.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Apples, Cities, Evil

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.40, Simon and Schuster

• I left the fairy tales lying on the floor of the nursery, and I have not found any books so sensible since.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Lying, Book, Nurse

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.42, Simon and Schuster

• The wise old fairy tales never were so silly as to say that the prince and the princess lived peacefully ever afterwards. The fairy tales said that the prince and princess lived happily ever afterwards; and so they did. They lived happily, although it is very likely that from time to time they threw the furniture at each other.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Wise, Silly, Princess

• Exactly what the fairy tale does is this: it accustoms him for a series of clear pictures to the idea that these limitless terrors had a limit, that these shapeless enemies have enemies in the knights of God, that there is something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than strong fear.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Strong, Children, Knights

  "Tremendous Trifles". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, 1909.

• I am concerned with a certain way of looking at life, which was created in me by the fairy tales, but has since been meekly ratified by the mere facts.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Way, Facts, Fairy Tale

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.35, Simon and Schuster

• Fairy tales are more than true.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Dragons, Fairy Stories, Fairy Tale

• Folk-lore means that the soul is sane, but that the universe is wild and full of marvels. Realism means that the world is dull and full of routine, but that the soul is sick and screaming. The problem of the fairy tale is: what will a healthy man do with a fantastic world? The problems of the modern novel is: what will a madman do with a dull world? In the fairy tales the cosmos goes mad; but the hero does not go mad. In the modern novels the hero is mad before the book begins, and suffers from the harsh steadiness and cruel sanity of the cosmos.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Hero, Book, Mean

• Boys like romantic [fairy] tales; but babies like realistic tales - because they find them romantic...This proves that even nursery tales only echo an almost prenatal leap of interest and amazement. These tales say that apples were golden only to refresh the forgotten moment when we found that they were green. They make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Running, Baby, Wine

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