G. K. Chesterton Quotes on Man (24 Quotes)

You have weighed the stars in the balance, and grasped the skies in a span; Take, if you must have answer, the word of a common man.

The first of all democratic doctrines is that all men are interesting.

A great deal of contemporary criticism reads to me like a man saying Of course I do not like green cheese I am very fond of brown sherry.'

Your next-door neighbour. . . is not a man he is an environment. He is the barking of a dog he is the noise of a pianola he is a dispute about a party wall he is drains that are worse than yours, or roses that are better than yours.

Men that are men again; who goes home?

To say that a man is an idealist is merely to say that he is a man.

The lunatic is the man who lives in a small world but thinks it is a large one he is the man who lives in a tenth of the truth, and thinks it is the whole. The madman cannot conceive any cosmos outside a certain tale or conspiracy or vision.

And goodness only knowses; The Noselessness of Man.

Architecture is the alphabet of giants it is the largest set of symbols ever made to meet the eyes of men.

Carlyle said that men were mostly fools. Christianity, with a surer and more reverend realism, says that they are all fools.

The sane man knows that he has a touch of the beast, a touch of the devil, a touch of the saint, a touch of the citizen. The really sane man knows that he has a touch of the madman.

It is at unimportant moments that a man is a gentleman. At important moments he ought to be something better.

Among the Very Rich you will never find a really generous man, even by accident. They may give their money away, but they will never give themselves away they are egoistic, secretive, dry as old bones.

Boyhood is a most complex and incomprehensible thing. Even when one has been through it, one does not understand what it was. A man can never quite understand a boy, even when he has been the boy.

People accuse journalism of being too personal but to me it has always seemed far too impersonal. It is charged with tearing away the veils from private life but it seems to me to be always dropping diaphanous but blinding veils between men and men.

Soldiers have many faults, but they have one redeeming merit they are never worshippers of force. Soldiers more than any other men are taught severely and systematically that might is not right.

It is not the man of pleasure who has pleasure it is not the man of the world who appreciates the world. ... It is the awkward man, whose evening dress does not fit him, whose gloves will not go on, whose compliments will not come off. . .

The man who sees consistency in things is a wit the man who sees the inconsistency in things is a humorist.

Individually, men may present a more or less rational appearance, eating, sleeping and scheming. But humanity as a whole is changeful, mystical, fickle and delightful. Men are men, but Man is a woman.

A cosmic philosophy is not constructed to fit a man a cosmic philosophy is constructed to fit a cosmos. A man can no more possess a private religion than he can possess a private sun and moon.

There is a great man who makes every man feel small. But the real great man is the man who makes every man feel great.

The average man votes below himself he votes with half a mind or a hundredth part of one. A man ought to vote with the whole of himself, as he worships or gets married. A man ought to vote with his head and heart, his soul and stomach. . .

All good men are international. Nearly all bad men are cosmopolitan. If we are to be international we must be national.

The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.