William Ralph Inge Quotes & Sayings

They who will live for others shall have great troubles, but they shall seem to them small. Those who will live for themselves shall have small troubles, but they shall seem to them great. — William Ralph Inge

If we feel that any habit or pursuit, harmless in itself, is keeping us from God and sinking us deeper in the things of earth; if we find that things which others can do with impunity are for us the occasion of falling, then abstinence is our only course. Abstinence alone can recover for us the real value of what should have been for our help but which has been an occasion of falling ... It is necessary that we should steadily resolve to give up anything that comes between ourselves and God. — William Ralph Inge

Two chief pitfalls into which the mystic is liable to fall
dreamy inactivity and Antinomianism. — William Ralph Inge

what is originality ? undetected plagiarism! — William Ralph Inge

No Christian can be a pessimist, for Christianity is a system of radical optimism. — William Ralph Inge

Therefore from the storehouse of His Passion I borrow the price of my debt, — William Ralph Inge

The whole of nature is a conjugation of the verb to eat, in the active and passive. — William Ralph Inge

The world belongs to those who think and act with it, who keep a finger on its pulse. — William Ralph Inge

The strongest wish of a vast number of earnest men and women to-day is for a basis of religious belief which shall rest, not upon tradition or external authority or historical evidence, but upon the ascertainable facts of human experience. The craving for immediacy, which we have seen to be characteristic of all mysticism, now takes the form of a desire to establish the validity of the God-consciousness as a normal part of the healthy inner life. — William Ralph Inge

Let us remember, when we are inclined to be disheartened, that the private soldier is a poor judge of the fortunes of a great battle. — William Ralph Inge

Literature flourishes best when it is half a trade and half an art. — William Ralph Inge

A monarch frequently represents his subjects better that an elected assembly; and if he is a good judge of character he is likely to have more capable and loyal advisers. — William Ralph Inge

In dealing with Englishmen you can be sure of one thing only, that the logical solution will not be adopted. — William Ralph Inge

The happiest people seem to be those who have no particular cause for being happy except that they are so. — William Ralph Inge

The great discovery of the nineteenth century, that we are of one blood with the lower animals, has created new ethical obligations which have not yet penetrated the public conscience. The clerical profession has been lamentably remiss in preaching this obvious duty. — William Ralph Inge

For better or worse, man is the tool-using animal, and as such he has become the lord of creation. When he is lord also of himself, he will deserve his self-chosen title homo sapiens. — William Ralph Inge

The command, 'Be fruitful and multiply', was promulgated, according to our authorities, when the population of the world consisted of two persons. — William Ralph Inge

Joy is the triumph of life; it is the sign that we are living our true life as spiritual beings. — William Ralph Inge

The Devil deserves zero tolerance. — William Ralph Inge

Deliberate cruelty to our defenceless and beautiful little cousins is surely one of the meanest and most detestable vices of which a human being can be guilty. — William Ralph Inge

Boredom is a certain sign that we are allowing our faculties to rust in idleness. — William Ralph Inge

Originality is undetected plagiarism. — William Ralph Inge

Our real self is not the captive of Space and Time — William Ralph Inge

It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism, while the wolf remains of a different opinion. — William Ralph Inge

It is a harder and a nobler task to preserve detachment in a crowd than in a cell; the little daily sacrifices of family life are often a greater trial than self-imposed mortifications. — William Ralph Inge

Religion is caught, not taught. — William Ralph Inge

The whole of creation, with all of its laws, is a revelation of God. — William Ralph Inge

It is astonishing with how little wisdom mankind can be governed, when that little wisdom is its own. — William Ralph Inge

Our test is infallible. Whatever view of reality deepens our sense of the tremendous issues of life in the world wherein we move, is for us nearer the truth than any view which diminishes that sense. — William Ralph Inge

True faith is belief in the reality of absolute values. — William Ralph Inge

The statistics of suicide show that, for non-combatants at least, life is more interesting in war than in peace. — William Ralph Inge

Lutheranism is essentially German ... It worships a God who is neither just nor merciful. — William Ralph Inge

The proper time to influence the character of a child is about a hundred years before he is born. — William Ralph Inge

No healthy civilization can ever be reared on a foundation of devitalized work. — William Ralph Inge

The happy people are those who are producing something ... — William Ralph Inge

The fruit of the tree of knowledge always drives man from some paradise or other; and even the paradise of fools is not an unpleasant abode while it is habitable. — William Ralph Inge

There are no rewards or punishments - only consequences. — William Ralph Inge

Philosophy means thinking things out for oneself. Ultimately, there can be only one true philosophy, since reason is one and we all live in the same world. — William Ralph Inge

Whoever marries the spirit of this age will find himself a widower in the next. — William Ralph Inge

Every institution not only carries within it the seeds of its own dissolution, but prepares the way for its most hated rival. — William Ralph Inge

Theater is, of course, a reflection of life. Maybe we have to improve life before we can hope to improve theater. — William Ralph Inge

Experience is a good teacher, but her fees are very high. — William Ralph Inge

I think middle-age is the best time, if we can escape the fatty degeneration of the conscience which often sets in at about fifty. — William Ralph Inge

Man will never be entirely willing to give up this world for the next nor the next world for this. — William Ralph Inge

God does not always punish a nation by sending it adversity. More often He gives the oppressors their hearts' desire, and sends leanness withal into their soul. — William Ralph Inge

There is no law of progress. Our future is in our own hands, to make or to mar. It will be an uphill fight to the end, and would we have it otherwise? Let no one suppose that evolution will ever exempt us from struggles. 'You forget,' said the Devil, with a chuckle, 'that I have been evolving too. — William Ralph Inge

To become a popular religion, it is only necessary for a superstition to enslave a philosophy. — William Ralph Inge

It is becoming impossible for those who mix at all with their fellow-men to believe that the grace of God is distributed denominationally. — William Ralph Inge

Over-population is a phenomenon connected with the survival of the unfit, and it is a mechanism which has created conditions favourable to the survival of the unfit and the elimination of the fit. — William Ralph Inge

Beautiful thoughts hardly bring us to God until they are acted upon. No one can have a true idea of right until he does it. — William Ralph Inge

In imperialism nothing fails like success. If the conqueror oppresses his subjects, they will become fanatical patriots, and sooner or later have their revenge; if he treats them well, and governs them for their good, they will multiply faster than their rulers, till they claim their independence. — William Ralph Inge

Consciousness is a phase of mental life which arises in connection with the formation of new habits. When habit is formed, consciousness only interferes to spoil our performance. — William Ralph Inge

Events in the past maybe roughly divided into those which and probably never happened and those which do not matter. — William Ralph Inge

Worry is interest paid on trouble before it comes due. — William Ralph Inge

Patriotism varies, from a noble devotion to a moral lunacy. — William Ralph Inge

The church that is married to the spirit of this age, becomes a widow in the next. — William Ralph Inge

Originality, I fear, is too often only undetected and frequently unconscious plagiarism. — William Ralph Inge

Public opinion, a vulgar, impertinent, anonymous tyrant who deliberately makes life unpleasant for anyone who is not content to the average person. — William Ralph Inge

The church is only a secular institution in which the half-educated speak to the half-converted. — William Ralph Inge

A nation is a society united by a delusion about its ancestry and a common hatred of its neighbors. — William Ralph Inge

A man may build himself a throne of bayonets, but he can't sit on it. — William Ralph Inge

It is quite natural and inevitable that, if we spend sixteen hours daily of our waking lives in thinking about the affairs of the world and five minutes in thinking about God and our souls, this world will seem two hundred times more real to us than God. — William Ralph Inge

Civilization is a disease which is almost invariably fatal. — William Ralph Inge

Faith is an act of self-consecration, in which the will, the intellect, and the affections all have their place. — William Ralph Inge

Civilization is being poisoned by its own waste products. — William Ralph Inge

I have never understood why it should be considered derogatory to the Creator to suppose that he has a sense of humour. — William Ralph Inge

No word in our language not even "Socialism" has been employed more loosely than " Mysticism ." ... The history of the word begins in close connexion with the Greek mysteries. A mystic is one who has been, or is being, initiated into some esoteric knowledge of Divine things, about which he must keep his mouth shut ... — William Ralph Inge

The vulgar mind always mistakes the exceptional for the important. — William Ralph Inge

A man is never so truly and intensely himself as when he is most possessed by God. It is impossible to say where, in the spiritual life, the human will leaves off and divine grace begins. — William Ralph Inge

When our first parents were driven out of Paradise, Adam is believed to have remarked to Eve, "My dear, we live in an age of transition." — William Ralph Inge

Christianity promises to make men free; it never promises to make them independent. — William Ralph Inge

The aim of education is the knowledge not of facts but of values. — William Ralph Inge

The soul is dyed by the color of its leisure hours. — William Ralph Inge

Don't break the silence unless you can improve on it. — William Ralph Inge

Beneath the dingy uniformity of international fashions in dress, man remains what he has always been; a splendid fighting animal, a self-sacrificing hero, and a blood thirsty savage. — William Ralph Inge

This is old, therefore it is good"; the other says, "This is new, therefore it is better. — William Ralph Inge

But the instinct of hoarding, like all other instincts, tends to become hypertrophied and perverted; and with the institution of private property comes another institution-that of plunder and brigandage. In private life, no motive of action is at present so powerful and so persistent as acquisitiveness, which unlike most other desires, knows no satiety. The average man is rich enough when he has a little more than he has got, and not till then. — William Ralph Inge

Hatred toward any human being cannot exist in the same heart as love to God. — William Ralph Inge

The modern world belongs to the half-educated, a rather difficult class, because they do not realize how little they know. — William Ralph Inge

Take away fear, and the battle of Freedom is half won. — William Ralph Inge

All human love is a holy thing, the holiest thing in our experience. — William Ralph Inge

The greatest obstacle to progress is not man's inherited pugnacity, but his incorrigible tendency to parasitism. — William Ralph Inge

The jealous man is so preoccupied with what he hasn't got that he fails to appreciate the value of what he has got. He loses the ability to feel glad because the sun is shining. He doesn't see the wonder and the newness of the beginning of spring. — William Ralph Inge

Each generation takes a special pleasure in removing the household gods of its parents from their pedestals, and consigning them to the cupboard. — William Ralph Inge

Admiration for ourselves and our institutions is too often measured by our contempt and dislike for foreigners. — William Ralph Inge

We must cut our coat according to our cloth, and adapt ourselves to changing circumstances. — William Ralph Inge

Prayer gives a man the opportunity of getting to know a gentleman he hardly ever meets. I do not mean his maker, but himself. — William Ralph Inge

The enemies of freedom do not argue; they shout and they shoot. — William Ralph Inge

We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form. — William Ralph Inge

The right use of leisure is no doubt a harder problem than the right use of our working hours. The soul is dyed the color of its leisure thoughts. — William Ralph Inge

Many people believe that they are attracted by God, or by Nature, when they are only repelled by man. — William Ralph Inge

We should think of the church as an orchestra in which the different churches play on different instruments while a Divine Conductor calls the tune. — William Ralph Inge

Even the paradise of fools is not an unpleasant abode while it is inhabitable. — William Ralph Inge

The game of life is worth playing, but the struggle is the prize. — William Ralph Inge

The average man is rich enough when he has a little more than he has got. — William Ralph Inge

There is no limit to the noble aspirations which the words "my country" may evoke. — William Ralph Inge

Experience proves that none is so cruel as the disillusioned sentimentalist. — William Ralph Inge

The whole of nature, as has been said, is a conjugation of the verb to eat, in the active and in the passive. — William Ralph Inge