Quotes from The Innocence of Father Brown

“Humility is the mother of giants. One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“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, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“My brain and this world don't fit each other; and there's an end of it.”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“Father Brown: I never said it was always wrong to enter fairyland, I only said it was always dangerous.”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“I mean that we here are on the wrong side of the tapestry,' answered Father Brown. 'The things that happen here do not seem to mean anything; they mean something somewhere else. Somewhere else retribution will come on the real offender. Here it often seems to fall on the wrong person.”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“Men may keep a sort of level of good, but no man has ever been able to keep on one level of evil. That road goes down and down.”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“He thought his detective brain as good as the criminal's, which was true. But he fully realised the disadvantage. "The criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic," he said with a sour smile, and lifted his coffee cup to his lips slowly, and put it down very quickly. He had put salt in it.”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“But, as a matter of fact, another part of my trade, too, made me sure you weren’t a priest.” “What?” asked the thief, almost gaping. “You attacked reason,” said Father Brown. “It’s bad theology.”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“Private lives are more important than public reputations.”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“Father Brown got to his feet, putting his hands behind him. 'Odd, isn't it,' he said, 'that a thief and a vagabond should repent, when so many who are rich and secure remain hard and frivolous, and without fruit for God or man?”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“As it has been well expressed in the paradox of Poe, wisdom should reckon on the unforeseen.”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“Father Brown: ... one can sometimes do good by being the right person in the wrong place”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“Is that all?" asked Flambeau after a long pause. "Have we got to the dull truth at last?"

"Oh, no," said Father Brown.

As the wind died in the most distant pine woods with a long hoot as of mockery Father Brown, with an utterly impassive face, went on:

"I only suggested that because you said one could not plausibly connect snuff with clockwork or candles with bright stones. Ten false philosophies will fit the universe; ten false theories will fit Glengyle Castle. But we want the real explanation of the castle and the universe. But are there no other exhibits?"

Craven laughed, and Flambeau rose smiling to his feet and strolled down the long table.

[Ch.6]”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“Stop, stop, stop!' he cried; "stop talking a minute, for I see half. Will God give me strength? Will my brain make the one jump and see all? Heaven help me! I used to be fairly good at thinking. . . Will my head split - or will it see? I see half - I only see half.”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“No man is such a legalist as the good Secularist.”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“Father Brown looked him full in his frowning face. "Yes," he said, "I caught him, with an unseen hook and an invisible line which is long enough to let him wander to the ends of the world, and still to bring him back with a twitch upon the thread.”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“People like frequent laughter," answered Father Brown, "but I don't think they like a permanent smile. Cheerfulness without humour is a very trying thing.”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“A radical does not mean a man who lives on radishes," remarked Crook, with some impatience; "and a Conservative does not mean a man who preserves jam. Neither, I assure you, does a Socialist mean a man who desires a social evening with the chimney-sweep. A Socialist means a man who wants all the chimneys swept and all the chimney-sweeps paid for it.”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“If ever I murdered somebody," he added quite simply, "I dare say it might be an Optimist.”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“When he thought of a joke he made it, and was called brilliant. When he could not think of a joke he said that this was no time for trifling, and was called able.”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“A waiter came swiftly along the room, and then stopped dead. His stoppage was as silent as his tread; but all those vague and kindly gentlemen were so used to the utter smoothness of the unseen machinery which surrounded and supported their lives, that a waiter doing anything unexpected was a start and a jar. They felt as you and I would feel if the inanimate world disobeyed-- if a chair ran away from us.”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“Mr. Audley, never having been in politics, treated them a little more seriously. Sometimes he even embarrassed the company by phrases suggesting that there was some difference between a Liberal and a Conservative.”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“Sir Arthur St. Clare, as I have already said, was a man who read his Bible. That was what was the matter with him. When will people understand that it is useless for a man to read his Bible unless he also reads everybody else's Bible? A printer reads a Bible for misprints. A Mormon reads his Bible, and finds polygamy; a Christian Scientist reads his, and finds we have no arms and legs. St. Clare was an old Anglo-Indian Protestant soldier. Now, just think what that might mean; and, for Heaven's sake, don't cant about it. It might mean a man physically formidable living under a tropic sun in an Oriental society, and soaking himself without sense or guidance in an Oriental Book. Of course, he read the Old Testament rather than the New. Of course, he found in the Old Testament anything that he wanted—lust, tyranny, treason. Oh, I dare say he was honest, as you call it. But what is the good of a man being honest in his worship of dishonesty?”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“If you know what a man's doing, get in front of him; but if you want to guess what he's doing, keep behind him.”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“There was a short railway official travelling up to the terminus, three fairly short market-gardeners picked up two stations afterwards, one very short widow lady going up from a small Essex town, and a very short Roman Catholic priest going up from a small Essex village. When it came to the last case, Valentin gave it up and almost laughed. The little priest was so much the essence of those Eastern flats; he had a face as round and dull as a Norfolk dumpling; he had eyes as empty as the North Sea; he had several brown-paper parcels, which he was quite incapable of collecting. The Eucharistic Congress had doubtless sucked out of their local stagnation many such creatures, blind and helpless, like moles disinterred. Valentin was a skeptic in the severe style of France, and could have no love for priests. But he could have pity for them, and this one might have provoked pity in anybody. He had a large, shabby umbrella, which constantly fell on the floor. He did not seem to know which was the right end of his return ticket. He explained with a moon-calf simplicity to everybody in the carriage that he had to be careful, because he had something made of real silver "with blue stones" in one of his brown-paper parcels. His quaint blending of Essex flatness with saintly simplicity continuously amused the Frenchman till the priest arrived (somehow) at Tottenham with all his parcels, and came back for his umbrella.”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“Where does a wise man hide a pebble?" And the tall man answered in a low voice: "On the beach." The small man nodded, and after a short silence said: "Where does a wise man hide a leaf?" And the other answered: "In the forest.”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“Angus...had hitherto maintained hilarious ease from motives of mental hygiene...”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“Only a man who knows nothing of motors talks of motoring without petrol; only a man who knows nothing of reason talks of reasoning without strong, undisputed first principles.”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

“Sometimes he even embarrassed the company by phrases suggesting that there was some difference between a Liberal and a Conservative.”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Innocence of Father Brown

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