Ronald Knox Quotes

A loud noise at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.

Knox was engaged in a theological discussion with scientist John Scott Haldane. 'In a universe containing millions of planets,' reasoned Haldane, 'is it not inevitable that life should appear on at least one of them?' 'Sir,' replied Knox, 'if Scotland Yard found a body in your cabin trunk, would you tell them: 'There are millions of trunks in the world; surely one of them must contain a body? I think the would still want to know who put it there'.

It is so stupid of modern civilization to have given up believing in the devil when he is the only explanation of it.

Always tell the truth, and people will never believe you.

He who travels in the Barque of Peter had better not look too closely into the engine room.

Only those of us, I think, who were born under Queen Victoria know what it feels like to assume, without questioning, that England is permanently top nation, that foreigners do not matter, and that if the worst comes to the worst, Lord Salisbury will send a gunboat.

The great argument used now against any theological proposition is not, that it is untrue, or unthinkable, or unedifying, or unscriptural, or unorthodox, but simply, that the modern mind cannot accept it.

If you have a sloppy religion you get a sloppy atheism.

The difference between the Old and the New Testament is the difference between a man who said "There is nothing new under the sun" and a God who says "Behold, I make all things new.

All men who have ideals . . . live by some kind of faith, by committing themselves to some kind of loyalty which is not universally recognized as the common property of all thinking men. They must have something-something outside themselves, to make them feel life is worth living, that good rather than evil is the explanation of the world.

It doesn't do to say that heresy produces the development of doctrine, because that annoys the theologians. But it is true to say that as a matter of history the development of doctrine has been largely a reaction on the Church's part to the attacks of heresy.

Comparative religion is an admirable recipe for making people comparatively religious.

O God, for as much as without Thee We are not enabled to doubt Thee, Help us all by Thy grace To convince the whole race It knows nothing whatever about Thee.

The prevailing attitude of the speakers was one of heavy disagreement with a number of things which the reader had not said.

When suave politeness, tempering bigot zeal, corrected 'I believe' to 'one does feel'.

Only man had dignity; only man, therefore, can be funny.

Long before I had ever seen a ritualistic service I became a Ritualist.

The hall-mark of American humour is its pose of illiteracy.