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

“Private lives are more important than public reputations.””

— G. K. Chesterton

“My brain and this world don't fit each other; and there's an end of it.””

— G. K. Chesterton

“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

“Father Brown: I never said it was always wrong to enter fairyland, I only said it was always dangerous.””

— G. K. Chesterton

“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

“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

“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

“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