How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it; if you could really look at other men with common curiosity and pleasure; if you could see them walking as they are in their sunny selfishness and their virile indifference! You would begin to be interested in them, because they were not interested in you. You would break out of this tiny and tawdry theater in which your own little plot is always being played, and you would find yourself under a freer sky, in a street full of splendid strangers.

About G. K. Chesterton

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was an English Christian apologist writer. Chesterton's wit, paradoxical style, and defence of tradition made him a dominant figure in early 20th-century literature.

More quotations from G. K. Chesterton

In the main, and from the beginning of time, mysticism has kept men sane. The thing that has driven them mad was logic.

—G. K. Chesterton

Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.

—G. K. Chesterton

reason fallacies

Artistic temperament is the disease that afflicts amateurs.

—G. K. Chesterton

The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.

—G. K. Chesterton

I felt despair. Though it seems to me now there's two kinds of it: the sort that causes a person to surrender and then the sort I had which made me take risks and make plans.

—G. K. Chesterton

suffering

History

13 Feb 2016 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it; if you could really look at other men with common curiosity and pleasure; if you could see them walking as they are in their sunny selfishness and their virile indifference! You would begin to be interested in them, because they were not interested in you. You would break out of this tiny and tawdry theater in which your own little plot is always being played, and you would find yourself under a freer sky, in a street full of splendid strangers.