Gilbert K. Chesterton Dragons Quotations

Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.

I have little doubt that when St. George had killed the dragon he was heartily afraid of the princess.

Fairy tales are more than true ...

The objection to fairy stories is that they tell children there are dragons. But children have always known there are dragons. Fairy stories tell children that dragons can be killed.

Saint George he was for England, And before he killed the dragon he drank a pint of English ale out of an English flagon.

A man cannot deserve adventures; he cannot earn dragons and hippogriffs.

Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.

The more truly we can see life as a fairytale, the more clearly the tale resolves itself into war with the dragon who is wasting fairyland.