William Ralph Inge Quotes - Page 3

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

Bereavement is the deepest initiation into the mysteries of human life, an initiation more searching and profound than even happy love.

A man may build himself a throne of bayonets, but he cannot sit on it.

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

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

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.

The wise man is he who knows the relative value of things.

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.

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.

No Christian can be a pessimist, for Christianity is a system of radical optimism.

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

In praising science, it does not follow that we must adopt the very poor philosophies which scientific men have constructed. In philosophy they have much more to learn than to teach.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Lutheranism is essentially German... It worships a God who is neither just nor merciful.

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

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.

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.

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

Literature flourishes best when it is half a trade and half an art.

Don't get up from the feast of life without paying for your share of it.