Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

Why is it so hard to be serious, so easy to be too serious?

Isn’t it wonderful the way the world holds both the deeply serious, and the unexpectedly mirthful?

Humor and seriousness are not in opposition to each other.

To think of shadows is a serious thing.

In order to have great happiness you have to have great pain and unhappiness - otherwise how would you know when you're happy?

I believe in joy, but I believe in the flip-side, agony.

I found more joy in sorrow than you could find in joy.

I'm a very serious person. Unfortunately, sometimes.

I think a good dollop of sadness is quite a useful thing in comedy sometimes. I think if everyone's happy all the time, it's a bit dull. It's like salt and caramel - you wouldn't imagine they would go well together, but they do.

Light matters should be dealt with seriously. Serious matters should be dealt with lightly.

Joy is not an alternative to opposition; it is part of a compound that includes opposition.

One can be serious about the frivolous, frivolous about the serious.

I'm a very serious person, but I don't take myself very seriously and I would rather laugh all day than argue.

Seriousness is the deepest pleasure we have.

Deemest thou laborOnly is earnest?Grave is all beauty,Solemn is joy.

People find it hard to be both comic and serious, though life manages it easily enough.

It was all completely serious, all completely hallucinated, all completely happy.

Man is the merriest species of the creation; all above or below him are serious.

Life is a blend of laughter and tears, a combination of rain and sunshine.

Serious things cannot be understood without laughable things, nor opposites at all without opposites.

Let your countenance be pleasant, but in serious matters let it be somewhat grave.

When we are expecting only suffering, the least joy surprises us: Suffering itself becomes the greatest of joys when we seek it as a precious treasure.

I think that hurting gives us a way to measure being happy. How can you know one without knowing the other.

The rose and thorn, the treasure and dragon, joy and sorrow, all mingle into one.