William Ralph Inge Quotes

49 Sourced Quotes

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
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
The phase of thought or feeling which we call Mysticism has its origin in that which is the raw material of all religion, and perhaps of all philosophy and art as well, namely, that dim consciousness of the beyond, which is part of our nature as human beings. Men have given different names to these "obstinate questionings of sense and outward things." We may call them, if we will, a sort of higher instinct, perhaps an anticipation of the evolutionary process; or an extension of the frontier of consciousness; or, in religious language, the voice of God speaking to us. Mysticism arises when we try to bring this higher consciousness into relation with the other contents of our minds.

William Ralph Inge
If the universe is running down like a clock, the clock must have been wound up at a date which we could name if we knew it. The world, if it is to have an end in time, must have had a beginning in time.

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

William Ralph Inge
Events in the past may be roughly divided into those which probably never happened and those which do not matter. This is what makes the trade of historian so attractive.

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
Patriotism varies, from a noble devotion to a moral lunacy.

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
The vulgar mind always mistakes the exceptional for the important.

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
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
The enemies of Freedom do not argue; they shout and they shoot.

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

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

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

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
Nobody is bored when he is trying to make something that is beautiful or to discover something that is true.

William Ralph Inge