Ronald Knox Quotes

O God, for as much as without Thee We are not enabled to doubt Thee, Help us all by Thy grace To convince the whole race It knows nothing whatever about Thee.

A loud noise at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.

Always tell the truth, and people will never believe you.

Comparative religion is an admirable recipe for making people comparatively religious.

All men who have ideals . . . live by some kind of faith, by committing themselves to some kind of loyalty which is not universally recognized as the common property of all thinking men. They must have something-something outside themselves, to make them feel life is worth living, that good rather than evil is the explanation of the world.

He who travels in the Barque of Peter had better not look too closely into the engine room.

The hall-mark of American humour is its pose of illiteracy.

Knox was engaged in a theological discussion with scientist John Scott Haldane. 'In a universe containing millions of planets,' reasoned Haldane, 'is it not inevitable that life should appear on at least one of them?' 'Sir,' replied Knox, 'if Scotland Yard found a body in your cabin trunk, would you tell them: 'There are millions of trunks in the world; surely one of them must contain a body? I think the would still want to know who put it there'.

Long before I had ever seen a ritualistic service I became a Ritualist.

The great argument used now against any theological proposition is not, that it is untrue, or unthinkable, or unedifying, or unscriptural, or unorthodox, but simply, that the modern mind cannot accept it.

Only man had dignity; only man, therefore, can be funny.

When suave politeness, tempering bigot zeal, corrected 'I believe' to 'one does feel'.

It is so stupid of modern civilization to have given up believing in the devil when he is the only explanation of it.