We all feel the riddle of the earth without anyone to point it out. The mystery of life is the plainest part of it.

Happiness is a mystery like religion, and it should never be rationalized.

The only words that ever satisfied me as describing Nature are the terms used in fairy books, charm, spell, enchantment. They express the arbitrariness of the fact and its mystery.

Mr Shaw is (I suspect) the only man on earth who has never written any poetry.

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.

The criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic.