Quotes by William Ralph Inge

A man may build himself a throne of bayonets, but he can't sit on it.
– William Ralph Inge
A nation is a society united by a delusion about its ancestry and by common hatred of its neighbours.
– 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 may be roughly divided into those which probably never happened and those which do not matter.
– 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
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
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
In dealing with Englishmen you can be sure of one thing only, that the logical solution will not be adopted.
– William Ralph Inge
It is astonishing with how little wisdom mankind can be governed, when that little wisdom is its own.
– 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
Many people believe that they are attracted by God, or by Nature, when they are only repelled by man.
– William Ralph Inge
No Christian can be a pessimist, for Christianity is a system of radical optimism.
– William Ralph Inge
Nobody is bored when he is trying to make something that is beautiful or to discover something that is true.
– William Ralph Inge
Originality is undetected plagiarism.
– 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
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 aim of education is the knowledge not of facts but of values.
– William Ralph Inge
The enemies of freedom do not argue; they shout and they shoot.
– 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
Theater is, of course, a reflection of life. Maybe we have to improve life before we can hope to improve theater.
– William Ralph Inge
There are no rewards or punishments - only consequences.
– William Ralph Inge
There are two kinds of fools: One says, This is old therefore it is good. The other one says, This is new therefore it is better.
– William Ralph Inge
To become a popular religion, it is only necessary for a superstition to enslave a philosophy.
– William Ralph Inge
True faith is belief in the reality of absolute values.
– 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
Whoever marries the spirit of this age will find himself a widower in the next.
– William Ralph Inge
Worry is interest paid on trouble before it comes due.
– William Ralph Inge
The wise man is he who knows the relative value of things.
– 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
It takes in reality only one to make a quarrel. It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favour of vegetarianism while the wolf remains of a different opinion.
– William Ralph Inge
Literature flourishes best when it is half a trade and half an art.
– William Ralph Inge