Ideas are dangerous, but the man to whom they are least dangerous is the man of ideas. He is acquainted with ideas, and moves among them like a lion-tamer. Ideas are dangerous, but the man to whom they are most dangerous is the man of no ideas. The man of no ideas will find the first idea fly to his head like wine to the head of a teetotaller.
- Heretics
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.
Truth must of necessity be stranger than fiction ... for fiction is the creation of the human mind, and therefore is congenial to it.
Nine times out of ten, the coarse word is the word that condemns an evil and the refined word the word that excuses it.
- Tremendous Trifles
The above was aptly paraphrased by Neal Gaiman in Coraline as "Fairy Tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."
Truth must of necessity be stranger than fiction ... for fiction is the creation of the human mind, and therefore is congenial to it.
- The Club of Queer Trades
The only way to be sure of catching a train is to miss the one before it.
The only way to be sure of catching a train is to miss the one before it.
- According to Pierre Daninos
The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.
The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.
- The Temple of Silence & Other Stories
I say that a man must be certain of his morality for the simple reason that he has to suffer for it.
I say that a man must be certain of his morality for the simple reason that he has to suffer for it.
- Illustrated London News, Aug. 4, 1906
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.
- A Short History of England
The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected.
The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected.
- Illustrated London News, Apr. 19, 1924
I believe what really happens in history is this: the old man is always wrong; and the young people are always wrong about what is wrong with him. The practical form it takes is this: that, while the old man may stand by some stupid custom, the young man always attacks it with some theory that turns out to be equally stupid.
I believe what really happens in history is this: the old man is always wrong; and the young people are always wrong about what is wrong with him. The practical form it takes is this: that, while the old man may stand by some stupid custom, the young man always attacks it with some theory that turns out to be equally stupid.
- Illustrated London News, Jun. 3, 1922
Without a gentle contempt for education, no gentleman's education is complete.
Without a gentle contempt for education, no gentleman's education is complete.
- The Common Man
Precisely because our political speeches are meant to be reported, they are not worth reporting. Precisely because they are carefully designed to be read, nobody reads them.
Precisely because our political speeches are meant to be reported, they are not worth reporting. Precisely because they are carefully designed to be read, nobody reads them.
- "On the Cryptic and the Elliptic," All Things Considered
Nine times out of ten, the coarse word is the word that condemns an evil and the refined word the word that excuses it.
- The Everyman Chesterton
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