G. K. Chesterton

1874–1936 · English essayist, novelist & Christian apologist

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936) was an English journalist, novelist, poet and lay theologian, famous for the Father Brown stories and for a paradox-loving prose style that made him one of the most quoted writers of his age. Gratitude and wonder are recurring themes across his work — from Orthodoxy to this 1917 popular history — which is one reason this line rings so authentically his. That popularity is also why so many unsourced ‘Chesterton’ quotes circulate; this one, unusually, checks out against the page.

Traced to source

4 quotes we’ve traced to G. K. Chesterton

“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder”

Verified

“The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see”

Verified

“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him”

Verified

“I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act”

Disputed

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