Thread by @HumbleFlow

Happy Birthday, G. K. Chesterton!

He was born 150 years ago on May 29th, 1874.

Here are 50 lessons inspired by his work, each accompanied by a relevant quote:

1. Embrace Wonder: "The world will never starve for want of wonders, but only for want of wonder."

2. Appreciate Paradox: "Truth must necessarily be stranger than fiction, for fiction is the creation of the human mind and therefore congenial to it."

3. Value Tradition: "Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead."

4. Cultivate Imagination: "Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."

5. Seek Simplicity: "There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people."

6. Celebrate Eccentricity: "An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered."

7. Defend Common Sense: "The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason."

8. Cherish Humility: "A true artist takes no notice whatever of the public. The public are to him non-existent."

9. Embrace Mystery: "The world will never starve for want of wonders, but only for want of wonder."

10. Uphold Faith: "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried."

11. Question Authority: "Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously."

12. Value Laughter: "Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly."

13. Defend Liberty: "To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it."

14. Embrace Diversity: "The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him."

15. Live with Gratitude: "You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink."

16. Appreciate the Absurd: "A thing may be too sad to be believed or too wicked to be believed or too good to be believed; but it cannot be too absurd to be believed in this planet of frogs and elephants, of crocodiles and cuttlefish."

17. Value Friendship: "The most incredible thing about miracles is that they happen."

18. Respect Individuality: "There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds."

19. Treasure Time: "The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost."

20. Embrace Failure: "Anything worth doing is worth doing badly."

21. Honor Integrity: "I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder."

22. Strive for Balance: "If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly."

23. Foster Curiosity: "The aim of life is appreciation; there is no sense in not appreciating things; and there is no sense in having more of them if you have less appreciation of them."

24. Challenge Conformity: "To be clever enough to get all that money, one must be stupid enough to want it."

25. Embrace Change: "The only way of catching a train I have ever discovered is to miss the train before."

26. Value Solitude: "A room without books is like a body without a soul."

27. Find Joy in Small Things: "There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds."

28. Embrace Ambiguity: "The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it."

29. Uphold Integrity: "The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him."

30. Treasure Freedom: "Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously."

31. Value Rest: "A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author."

32. Cultivate Empathy: "The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people."

33. Cherish Beauty: "The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children's games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up."

34. Seek Harmony: "The whole pleasure of marriage is that it is a perpetual crisis."

35. Question Assumptions: "The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people."

36. Honor Work: "A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author."

37. Uphold Justice: "The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost."

38. Treasure Love: "Love means to love that which is unlovable; or it is no virtue at all."

39. Value Authenticity: "Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere."

40. Embrace Diversity: "I believe in getting into hot water; it keeps you clean."

41. Appreciate the Unseen: "We shall never understand the natural environment until we see it as a living organism."

42. Cherish Freedom: "I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder."

43. Celebrate Creativity: "Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere."

44. Defend Truth: "Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed."

45. Value Faith: "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried."

46. Embrace Vulnerability: "The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it."

47. Seek Meaning: "The true object of all human life is play."

48. Champion Hope: "The one and only test of a valid religious idea, doctrinal statement, spiritual experience, or devotional practice was that it must lead directly to practical compassion."

49. Cultivate Resilience: "The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost."

49. Honor Diversity: "The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see."

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