Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Construction is loved after it exists, but creation is loved even before it begins.
In plain terms
Builders love their work after finishing, creators love it while imagining it.
What can you take from it?
True creation starts with emotional investment before the act.

Where it applies

  • parenting
  • artistic work
  • business building

Putting it to work

  • love your vision early
  • distinguish building from creating

Questions to consider

  • Do you love your work before you finish it?

Another view

Sometimes creation is done without much initial love or vision.

More from Gilbert Keith Chesterton

  1. Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.

    Permalink to quote #24
  2. Either criticism is no good at all (a very defensible position) or else criticism means saying about an author the very things that would have made him jump ou…

    Permalink to quote #26
  3. The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.

    Permalink to quote #23

Related quotes

  1. I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.

    Michelangelo BuonarrotiMichelangelo Buonarroti quote #10
  2. Liebe, Arbeit und Wissen sind die Quellen unseres Lebens. Sie sollen es auch regieren.

    Wilhelm ReichWilhelm Reich quote #1
  3. A life's work should be based on love.

    Ray BradburyRay Bradbury quote #1