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

It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor 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

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