“What embitters the world is not excess of criticism, but absence of self-criticism.”

— G. K. Chesterton, On Bright Old Things - and Other Things, Sidelights on New London and Newer New York, 1932

About G. K. Chesterton

1874 – 1936

English writer, critic and Christian apologist, author of the Father Brown mysteries and 'Orthodoxy'.

“The center of every man's existence is a dream.”

“Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die.”

“Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance.”

“It was for this that I've been training myself, it was for this that I was practising.”

“For freedom is not acquired by satisfying yourself with what you desire, but by destroying your desire.”

“Ask yourself at every moment, "Is this necessary?"”

“A little flesh, a little breath, and a Reason to rule all—that is myself.”

“Up! mind thine own aim, and God speed the mark!”

“It may be called the Master Passion—the hunger for Self-Approval.”