William Ralph Inge Quotes - Page 4

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.

Action is the normal completion of the act of will which begins as prayer. That action is not always external, but it is always some kind of effective energy.

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

Civilization is a disease which is almost invariably fatal.

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

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

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

"This is old, therefore it is good"; the other says, "This is new, therefore it is better."

Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction.

True faith is belief in the reality of absolute values.

Faith always contains an element of risk, of venture; and we are impelled to make the venture by the affinity and attraction which we feel in ourselves.

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.

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

A good government remains the greatest of human blessings and no nation has ever enjoyed it.

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."

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.

Love remembered and consecrated by grief belongs, more clearly than the happy intercourse of friends, to the eternal world; it has proved itself stronger than death.

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.

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

Originality is undetected plagiarism.

Gambling is a disease of barbarians superficially civilized.

We tolerate shapes in human beings that would horrify us if we saw them in a horse.

The whole of creation, with all of its laws, is a revelation of God.

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

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