William Ralph Inge
The great discovery of the nineteenth century, that we are of one blood with the lower animals, has created new ethical obligations which have not yet penetrated the public conscience. The clerical profession has been lamentably remiss in preaching this obvious duty.Collection: Animal
Experience proves that none is so cruel as the disillusioned sentimentalist.Collection: Sentimental
The Devil deserves zero tolerance.Collection: Zero
Christianity promises to make men free; it never promises to make them independent.Collection: Independent
Originality, I fear, is too often only undetected and frequently unconscious plagiarism.Collection: Originality
Public opinion, a vulgar, impertinent, anonymous tyrant who deliberately makes life unpleasant for anyone who is not content to the average person.Collection: Average
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.Collection: Giving Up
The greatest obstacle to progress is not man's inherited pugnacity, but his incorrigible tendency to parasitism.Collection: Men
The whole of nature, as has been said, is a conjugation of the verb to eat, in the active and in the passive.Collection: Food
A man may build himself a throne of bayonets, but he cannot sit on it.Collection: Trust
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.Collection: Color
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.Collection: God
The command, 'Be fruitful and multiply', was promulgated, according to our authorities, when the population of the world consisted of two persons.Collection: Two
Deliberate cruelty to our defenceless and beautiful little cousins is surely one of the meanest and most detestable vices of which a human being can be guilty.Collection: Beautiful
The modern world belongs to the half-educated, a rather difficult class, because they do not realize how little they know.Collection: Education
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.Collection: Revenge
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.Collection: Spring
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.Collection: Greek
Lutheranism is essentially German... It worships a God who is neither just nor merciful.Collection: Superstitions
Each generation takes a special pleasure in removing the household gods of its parents from their pedestals, and consigning them to the cupboard.Collection: Parent
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.Collection: Struggle
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.Collection: Philosophy
There is no limit to the noble aspirations which the words "my country" may evoke.Collection: Country