Howard Nemerov Quotes


Silence is the unbearable repartee. G.K. Chesterton Silence 165
One pleasure attached to growing older is that many things seem to be growing younger; growing fresher and more lively than we once supposed them to be. G.K. Chesterton Aging 152
Ten thousand women marched through the streets shouting We will not be dictated to and went off and became stenographers. G.K. Chesterton Feminism 150
There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people. G.K. Chesterton Boredom 130
Where does a wise man hide a leaf In the forest. But what does he do if there is no forest He grows a forest to hide it in. G.K. Chesterton Awesome 120
The criminal is the creative artist the detective only the critic. G.K. Chesterton Crime 108
Man is an exception, whatever else he is. If it is not true that a divine being fell, then we can only say that one of the animals went entirely off its head. G.K. Chesterton Man 100
Architecture is the alphabet of giants; it is the largest set of symbols ever made to meet the eyes of men. A tower stands up like a sort of simplified stature, of much more than heroic size. G.K. Chesterton Architecture 96
The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him but because he loves what is behind him. G.K. Chesterton Passion 95
Without education we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously. G.K. Chesterton Education 95
There are no words to express the abyss between isolation and having one ally. It may be conceded to the mathematician that four is twice two. But two is not twice one; two is two thousand times one. G.K. Chesterton Allies 93
The first two facts which a healthy boy or girl feels about sex are these: first that it is beautiful and then that it is dangerous. G.K. Chesterton Sex 92
People generally quarrel because they cannot argue. G.K. Chesterton Disagreement 91
If you happen to read fairy tales you will observe that one idea runs from one end of them to the otherthe idea that peace and happiness can only exist on some condition. This idea which is the core of ethics is the core of the nurserytales. G.K. Chesterton Fairy tales 90
Whatever we may think of the merits of torturing children for pleasure and no doubt there is much to be said on both sides I am sure we all agree that it should be done with sterilized instruments. G.K. Chesterton Irony 90
In a world where everything is ridiculous, nothing can be ridiculed. You cannot unmask a mask. G.K. Chesterton Absurdity 89
Poetry is sane because it floats easily in an infinite sea reason seeks to cross the infinite sea and so make it finite. The result is mental exhaustion. To accept everything is an exercise to understand everything a strain. G.K. Chesterton Reason 86
We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next-door neighbor. G.K. Chesterton Neighbors 85
The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable one. The trouble is that it is nearly reasonable, but not quite. G.K. Chesterton World 85
The moment you step into the world of facts, you step into the world of limits. You can free things from alien or accidental laws, but not from the laws of their own nature. G.K. Chesterton Facts 85
Large organization is loose organization. Nay, it would be almost as true to say that organization is always disorganization. G.K. Chesterton Organization 85
The real great man is the man who makes every man feel great. G.K. Chesterton Greatness 83
As regards moral courage then it is not so much that the public schools support it feebly as that they suppress it firmly. G.K. Chesterton Learning 82
Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home. G.K. Chesterton Jesus christ 81
He must not merely cling to life for then he will be a coward and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death for then he will be a suicide and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it. G.K. Chesterton Suicide 81
No said Gould with an unusual and convincing gravity I do not believe that being perfectly good in all respects would make a man merry. Well said Michael quietly will you tell me one thing Which of us has ever tried it G.K. Chesterton Goodness 80
The author challenges how much sanctity has to do with sameness as he says saints are as different from each other as those in any group even murderers. G.K. Chesterton Individuality 79
...the primary paradox that man is superior to all the things around him and yet is at their mercy. G.K. Chesterton Human nature 77
Those thinkers who cannot believe in any gods often assert that the love of humanity would be in itself sufficient for them; and so, perhaps, it would, if they had it. G.K. Chesterton God 77
If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly. G.K. Chesterton Doing 77
There are many books which we think we have read when we have not. There are, at least, many that we think we remember when we do not. An original picture was, perhaps, imprinted upon the brain, but it has changed with our own changing minds. We only remember our remembrance. G.K. Chesterton Memory 76
As to the doubt of the soul I discover it to be false a mood not a conclusion. My conclusion is the Faith. Corporate organized a personality teaching. A thing not a theory. It. G.K. Chesterton Emotion 76
All architecture is great architecture after sunset; perhaps architecture is really a nocturnal art, like the art of fireworks. G.K. Chesterton Architecture 76
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. G.K. Chesterton Books 76
We are all in the same boat in a stormy sea and we owe each other a terrible loyalty. G.K. Chesterton Loyalty 75
Unless a man becomes the enemy of an evil he will not even become its slave but rather its champion. G.K. Chesterton Evil 74
Woe unto them that are tired of everything, for everything will certainly be tired of them. G.K. Chesterton Habits 74
Merely having an open mind is nothing. The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid. G.K. Chesterton Mind 73
The old assumption of the approximate impossibility of war really rested on a similar assumption about the impossibility of evil-and especially of evil in high places. G.K. Chesterton Evil 73
Artistic temperament is a disease that afflicts amateurs. G.K. Chesterton Art 73
Happy is he who still loves something he loved in the nursery: He has not been broken in two by time; he is not two men, but one, and he has saved not only his soul but his life. G.K. Chesterton Happiness 73
Classic literature is still something that hangs in the air like a song. G.K. Chesterton Literature 73
The doctrine of human equality reposes on this: that there is no man really clever who has not found that he is stupid. There is no big man who has not felt small. Some men never feel small; but these are the few men who are. G.K. Chesterton Equality 71
The most comic things of all are exactly the things most worth doingsuch as making love. G.K. Chesterton Comedy 71
It is human to err; and the only final and deadly error, among all our errors, is denying that we have ever erred. G.K. Chesterton Errors 70
The English are no nearer than they were a hundred years ago to knowing what Jefferson really meant when he said that God had created all men equal. G.K. Chesterton Equality 69
I am not absentminded. It is the presence of mind that makes me unaware of everything else. G.K. Chesterton Wit 69
An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered. G.K. Chesterton Action 68
Perhaps we are both doing what we think right. But what we think right is so damned different that there can be nothing between us in the way of concession. There is nothing possible between us but honor and death. G.K. Chesterton Honor 67
The State did not own men so entirely even when it could send them to the stake as it sometimes does now where it can send them to the elementary school. G.K. Chesterton Politics 67

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Howard Nemerov Quotes

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