G. K. Chesterton

“And above the ships are palaces of brown, black-bearded chiefs,And below the ships are prisons, where with multitudinous griefs,Christian captives sick and sunless, all a labouring race repinesLike a race in sunken cities, like a nation in the mines.”

“The walls are hung with velvet that is black and soft as sin,And little dwarfs creep out of it and little dwarfs creep in.He holds a crystal phial that has colours like the moon,He touches, and it tingles, and he trembles very soon,And his face is as a fungus of a leprous white and greyLike plants in the high houses that are shuttered from the day.”

“The cold queen of England is looking in the glass; The shadow of the Valois is yawning at the Mass.”

“White founts falling in the courts of the sun, And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run.”

“   Nelson turned his blindest eye On Naples and on liberty.”

“Prince, I can hear the trumpet of Germinal, The tumbrils toiling up the terrible way; Even to-day your royal head may fall — I think I will not hang myself to-day.”

“The strangest whim has seized me. ... After all I think I will not hang myself to-day.”

“The gallows in my garden, people say,Is new and neat and adequately tall.”

“Prince, Prince-Elective on the modern plan, Fulfilling such a lot of People’s Wills, You take the Chiltern Hundreds while you can— A storm is coming on the Chiltern Hills.”

“Prince, Bayard would have smashed his swordTo see the sort of knights you dub — Is that the last of them — O LordWill someone take me to a pub?”

“They spoke of Progress spiring round, Of Light and Mrs. Humphry Ward — It is not true to say I frowned, Or ran about the room and roared; I might have simply sat and snored — I rose politely in the club And said, “I feel a little bored; Will someone take me to a pub?””

“I’ll read "Jack Redskin on the Quest" And feed my brain with better things.”

“But for the Virtuous Things you do,The Righteous Work, the Public Care,It shall not be forgiven you.”

“Heaven shall forgive you Bridge at dawn, The clothes you wear — or do not wear — And Ladies’ Leap-frog on the lawn And dyes and drugs, and petits verres.”

“Talk about the pews and steeples  And the cash that goes therewith!But the souls of Christian peoples...            Chuck it, Smith!”

“Are they clinging to their crosses?”

“It is all as of old, the empty clangour, The {{smallcaps|nothing}} scrawled on a five-foot page, The huckster who, mocking holy anger, Painfully paints his face with rage. * * * We that fight till the world is free, We have no comfort in victory; We have read each other as Cain his brother, We know each other, these slaves and we.”

“For we that fight till the world is free, We are not easy in victory: We have known each other too long, my brother, And fought each other, the world and we.”

“Our chiefs said 'Done,' and I did not deem it; Our seers said 'Peace,' and it was not peace; Earth will grow worse till men redeem it, And wars more evil, ere all wars cease.”

“I am not fighting a hopeless fight. People who have fought in real fights don't, as a rule.”