WIST Quotations

Inge, William Ralph -- “Bishop Gore and the Church of England,” Edinburgh Review (Jan 1908)

Dave — Mon, 04 May 2020 17:19:49 +0000

Jesus Christ chose to be born of poor and humble parents, in a land remote from the centre of political or intellectual influence, and in the circle of labouring men. He chose to belong to the class of the respectable artisan, and most of the twelve Apostles came from the same social level. In His teaching He plainly associated blessedness with the lot of poverty, and extreme danger with the lot of wealth. All through the New Testament the assumption is that God is on the side of the poor against the rich. As Jowett once said, there is more in the New Testament against being rich, and in favour of being poor, than we like to recognise.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Bishop Gore and the Church of England,” Edinburgh Review (Jan 1908)
(Source)

Reprinted in Outspoken Essays: First Series (1911).

Inge, William Ralph -- “Bishop Gore and the Church of England” (1908), Outspoken Essays, First Series (1919)

Dave — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 17:36:22 +0000

A love of order, seemliness, and good taste has led the Anglican Church along a middle path between what a seventeenth-century divine called “the meretricious gaudiness of the Church of Rome and the squalid sluttery of fanatic conventicles.”

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Bishop Gore and the Church of England” (1908), Outspoken Essays, First Series (1919)
(Source)

The reference is to "S. P. of Cambridge," believed to be the later Bishop Simon Patrick, who published in 1662 the pamphlet "A Brief Account of the new Sect of Latitude-men," lauding "that virtuous mediocrity which our Church observes between" the alternatives quoted by Inge. Reprinted in John Dunton, The Phenix, Vol. 2, ch. 4 (1707).

Inge, William Ralph -- “Bishop Gore and the Church of England” (1908), Outspoken Essays: First Series (1911)

Dave — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 22:39:40 +0000

When the heavy-handed dogmatist requires a categorical assent to the literal truth of the miraculous, in exactly the same sense in which physical facts are true, a tension between faith and reason cannot be avoided.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Bishop Gore and the Church of England” (1908), Outspoken Essays: First Series (1911)
(Source)

Inge, William Ralph -- “Confessio Fidei,” Outspoken Essays: Second Series (1922)

Dave — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:07:12 +0000

True faith is belief in the reality of absolute values.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Confessio Fidei,” Outspoken Essays: Second Series (1922)

Inge, William Ralph -- “Confessio Fidei,” Outspoken Essays: Second Series (1922)

Dave — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:41:59 +0000

Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god, and he is traveling in the right direction.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Confessio Fidei,” Outspoken Essays: Second Series (1922)

Inge, William Ralph -- “Democracy and the Future,” The Atlantic Monthly (1922)

Dave — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:43:00 +0000

So the pendulum swings, now violently, now slowly; and 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 (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Democracy and the Future,” The Atlantic Monthly (1922)

Full text.

Inge, William Ralph -- “Implicit Reason and Explicit Reason,” St. Peter’s Day sermon, sec. 9, Oxford University (29 Jun 1840)

Dave — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 14:28:49 +0000

All men have a reason, but not all men can give a reason.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Implicit Reason and Explicit Reason,” St. Peter’s Day sermon, sec. 9, Oxford University (29 Jun 1840)
(Source)

Inge, William Ralph -- “Institutionalism and Mysticism” (1914), Outspoken Essays: First Series (1914)

Dave — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 22:20:32 +0000

It happens sometimes that two opposite tendencies flourish together, deriving strength from a sense of the danger with which each is threatened by the popularity of the other. Where the antagonism is not absolute, each may gain by being compelled to recognise the strong points in the rival position. In a serious controversy the right is seldom or never all on one side; and in the normal course of events both theories undergo some modification through the influence of their opponents, until a compromise, not always logically defensible, brings to an end the acute stage of the controversy.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Institutionalism and Mysticism” (1914), Outspoken Essays: First Series (1914)
(Source)

Inge, William Ralph -- “Institutionalism and Mysticism” (1914), Outspoken Essays: First Series (1914)

Dave — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 19:31:42 +0000

The philosophical historian must admit that all the changes which the Catholic Church has undergone — its concessions to Pagan superstition, its secular power, its ruthless extirpation of rebels against its authority, its steadily growing centralisation and autocracy — were forced upon it in the struggle for existence. Those who wish that Church history had been different are wishing the impossible, or wishing that the Church had perished. But this argument is not valid as a defence of a divine institution. It is rather a merciless exposure of what happens, and must happen, to a great idea when it is enslaved by an institution of its own creation. The political organisation which has grown up round the idea ends by strangling it, and continues to fight for its own preservation by the methods which govern the policy of all other political organisations –force, fraud, and accommodation.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Institutionalism and Mysticism” (1914), Outspoken Essays: First Series (1914)
(Source)

Inge, William Ralph -- “Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Dave — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:15:10 +0000

Democracy is a form of government which may be rationally defended, not as being as good, but as being less bad than any other.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Inge, William Ralph -- “Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Dave — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 12:30:55 +0000

Like other idealisms, patriotism varies from a noble devotion to a moral lunacy.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Inge, William Ralph -- “Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Dave — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:13:37 +0000

It is becoming impossible for those who mix at all with their fellow-men to believe that the grace of God is distributed denominationally.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Inge, William Ralph -- “Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Dave — Mon, 14 Dec 2015 15:15:49 +0000

Admiration for ourselves and our institutions is too often measured by our contempt and dislike for foreigners.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Inge, William Ralph -- “Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Dave — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 14:12:24 +0000

Beneath the dingy uniformity of international fashions in dress, man remains what he has always been — a splendid fighting animal, a self-sacrificing hero, and a bloodthirsty savage.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Inge, William Ralph -- “Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Dave — Mon, 05 Oct 2015 15:58:09 +0000

Human nature is at once sublime and horrible, holy and satanic. Apart from the accumulation of knowledge and experience, which are external and precarious acquisitions, there is no proof that we have changed much since the first stone age.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Inge, William Ralph -- “Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Dave — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 14:31:12 +0000

Democracy is a form of government which may be rationally defended, not as being good, but as being less bad than any other.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

See Churchill.

Inge, William Ralph -- “Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Dave — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 14:03:18 +0000

History gives no countenance to the theory that popular governments are either more moral or more pacific than strong monarchies.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Inge, William Ralph -- “Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Dave — Mon, 02 Nov 2015 14:18:05 +0000

If an autocracy does not rest on the army, which leads to the chaos of praetorianism, it must rely on ‘panem et circenses.’ Hence it has some of the worst faults of democracy, without its advantages.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Inge, William Ralph -- “Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Dave — Mon, 09 Nov 2015 14:33:53 +0000

The excesses of revolutionists are not an argument against democracy, since revolutions are anything rather than democratic.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Inge, William Ralph -- “Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Dave — Mon, 16 Nov 2015 14:42:43 +0000

The democracy is a ready victim to shibboleths and catchwords, as all demagogues know too well.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Inge, William Ralph -- “Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Dave — Mon, 23 Nov 2015 16:10:57 +0000

No one can govern who cannot afford to be unpopular, and no democratic official can afford to be unpopular. Sometimes he has to wink at flagrant injustice and oppression; at other times a fanatical agitation compels him to pass laws which forbid the citizen to indulge perfectly harmless tastes, or tax him to contribute to the pleasures of the majority.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Inge, William Ralph -- “Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Dave — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 17:34:52 +0000

Democracy postulates community of interest or loyal patriotism. When these are absent it cannot long exist.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Inge, William Ralph -- “Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Dave — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 16:28:51 +0000

Senseless extravagance is the best friend of revolution.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Inge, William Ralph -- “Patriotism,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1915)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

But it must be remembered that, in spite of the proverb, 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 (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Patriotism,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1915)

Sometimes quoted as "while wolves remain of a different opinion."

Inge, William Ralph -- “Patriotism,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1915)

Dave — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 18:54:17 +0000

Devil-worship remains what it was, even when the idol is draped in the national flag.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Patriotism,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1915)

Inge, William Ralph -- “Patriotism,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1915)

Dave — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 17:17:47 +0000

But, though pugnacity and acquisitiveness have been the real foundation of much miscalled patriotism, better motives are generally mingled with these primitive instincts. It is the subtle blend of noble and ignoble sentiment which makes patriotism such a difficult problem for the moralist. The patriot nearly always believes, or thinks he believes, that he desires the greatness of his country because his country stands for something intrinsically great and valuable.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Patriotism,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1915)

Inge, William Ralph -- “Patriotism,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1915)

Dave — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 16:52:30 +0000

The history of the Jews also shows that oppression and persecution are far more efficacious in binding a nation together than community of interest and national prosperity. Increase of wealth divides rather than unites a people; but suffering shared in common binds it together with hoops of steel.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Patriotism,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1915)

Inge, William Ralph -- “Prognostications,” Assessments and Anticipations (1929)

Dave — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 13:25:54 +0000

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 (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Prognostications,” Assessments and Anticipations (1929)

Inge, William Ralph -- “Roman Catholic Modernism” (1909), Outspoken Essays: First Series (1911)

Dave — Mon, 11 May 2020 15:07:57 +0000

The craving for signs and wonders — that broad road which attracts so many converts and wins so rapid a success — leads religion at last to its destruction, as Christ seems to have warned His own disciples.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Roman Catholic Modernism” (1909), Outspoken Essays: First Series (1911)
(Source)

Inge, William Ralph -- “Roman Catholic Modernism” (1909), Outspoken Essays: First Series (1911)

Dave — Mon, 18 May 2020 16:08:24 +0000

Faith is, on the practical side, just the resolution to stand or fall by the noblest hypothesis; and, on the intellectual side, it is a progressive initiation, by experiment which ends in experience, into the unity of the good, the true, and the beautiful, founded on the inner assurance that these three attributes of the divine nature have one source and conduct to one goal.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Roman Catholic Modernism” (1909), Outspoken Essays: First Series (1911)
(Source)

Inge, William Ralph -- “St. Paul” (1914), Outspoken Essays: First Series (1914)

Dave — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 21:57:04 +0000

With St. Paul it is quite different. He is a saint without a luminous halo. His personal characteristics are too distinct and too human to make idealisation easy. For this reason he has never been the object of popular devotion. Shadowy figures like St. Joseph and St. Anne have been divinised and surrounded with picturesque legends; but St. Paul has been spared the honour or the ignominy of being coaxed and wheedled by the piety of paganised Christianity. No tender fairy-tales are attached to his cult; he remains for us what he was in the flesh. It is even possible to feel an active dislike for him.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“St. Paul” (1914), Outspoken Essays: First Series (1914)
(Source)

Inge, William Ralph -- “St. Paul” (1914), Outspoken Essays: First Series (1914)

Dave — Mon, 22 Jun 2020 16:14:29 +0000

There are very few historical characters who are alive enough to be hated.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“St. Paul” (1914), Outspoken Essays: First Series (1914)
(Source)

Inge, William Ralph -- “The Birth-Rate” (1917), Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Dave — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 18:25:00 +0000

It is worse than useless to try to put down by law a practice which a very large number of people believes to be innocent, and which must be left to the taste and conscience of the individual.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“The Birth-Rate” (1917), Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)
(Source)

Speaking of birth control.

Inge, William Ralph -- “The Future of the English Race,” Galton Lecture (1919), Outspoken Essays: First Series (1920)

Dave — Mon, 23 Mar 2020 20:41:21 +0000

Race and nationality are catchwords for which rulers find that their subjects are willing to fight, as they fought for what they called religion four hundred years ago.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“The Future of the English Race,” Galton Lecture (1919), Outspoken Essays: First Series (1920)
(Source)

Inge, William Ralph -- “The Future of the English Race,” Galton Lecture (1919), Outspoken Essays: First Series (1920)

Dave — Mon, 30 Mar 2020 17:43:08 +0000

Things never turn out either so well or so badly as they logically ought to do.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“The Future of the English Race,” Galton Lecture (1919), Outspoken Essays: First Series (1920)
(Source)

Inge, William Ralph -- “The Idea of Progress,” Romanes Lecture (27 May 1920)

Dave — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 04:47:16 +0000

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 (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“The Idea of Progress,” Romanes Lecture (27 May 1920)
(Source)

Inge, William Ralph -- “The Idea of Progress”, Romanes Lecture, Oxford (27 May 1920)

Dave — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 19:46:37 +0000

To become a popular religion, it is only necessary for a superstition to enslave a philosophy.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“The Idea of Progress”, Romanes Lecture, Oxford (27 May 1920)
(Source)

Inge, William Ralph -- “The Indictment against Christianity” (1917), Outspoken Essays: First Series, ch. 10 (1919)

Dave — Mon, 13 Jul 2020 15:18:54 +0000

Loyalty is one of the most attractive of moral qualities, and it necessarily inhibits criticism of its own objects, which has the appearance of treason. But, unless the aims of the corporate body which claims our absolute allegiance are right and reasonable, loyalty may be, and often has been, the parent of hideous crimes, and a social evil of the first magnitude.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“The Indictment against Christianity” (1917), Outspoken Essays: First Series, ch. 10 (1919)
(Source)

Inge, William Ralph -- “The Training of Reason” (1918)

Dave — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:54:08 +0000

The aim of education is the knowledge not of facts but of values.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“The Training of Reason” (1918)

In A. C. Benson (ed.), Cambridge Essays on Education (1918)

Inge, William Ralph -- “Patriotism,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1915)

Dave — Mon, 21 Dec 2015 23:09:14 +0000

In private life, no motive of action is at present so powerful and so persistent as acquisitiveness, which, unlike most other desires, knows no satiety.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Patriotism,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1915)

Inge, William Ralph -- A Rustic Moralist (1934)

Dave — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 21:53:17 +0000

A cat can be trusted to purr when she is pleased, which is more than can be said for human beings.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
A Rustic Moralist (1934)

Inge, William Ralph -- Assessments and Anticipations, ch. 7 “Faith” (1929)

Dave — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 17:55:14 +0000

Protestant theology has restricted the meaning of Faith too much — explaining it as subjective assurance or trust. It has sometimes been assumed that this attitude of throwing oneself into the arms of Divine grace may dispense us from the duty of forming rational convictions, and of directing our lives in accordance with them. Faith and fact come to be divorced. Either they are supposed to be directed to different objects, or we are told that the same proposition may be true for faith and false for science — in which case we are on a quicksand, and are driven to play fast and loose with veracity.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
Assessments and Anticipations, ch. 7 “Faith” (1929)
(Source)

Inge, William Ralph -- Assessments and Anticipations, ch. 7 “Faith” (1929)

Dave — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 14:36:55 +0000

Faith, in the Gospels, does not mean believing something: it is an inherent quality in the mind. It is a kind of courage; an attitude which favours adventure and is not afraid to run risks. Its opposite is not intellectual scepticism, but worry, cowardice, or despair. It can remove mountains — not literal mountains, but the obstacles which sloth and cowardice have put in our path.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
Assessments and Anticipations, ch. 7 “Faith” (1929)
(Source)

Inge, William Ralph -- Christian Mysticism, Lecture 1 (1899)

Dave — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 17:45:15 +0000

He who tries to be holy in order to be happy will assuredly be neither.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
Christian Mysticism, Lecture 1 (1899)
(Source)

Inge, William Ralph -- End of an Age, ch. 4 (1948)

Dave — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 17:11:57 +0000

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

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
End of an Age, ch. 4 (1948)

Inge, William Ralph -- Lay Thoughts of a Dean (1926)

Dave — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 14:19:40 +0000

We must cut our coat according to our cloth, and adapt ourselves to changing circumstances.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
Lay Thoughts of a Dean (1926)

Inge, William Ralph -- London Evening Standard (1927)

Dave — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 22:59:20 +0000

What is originality? Undetected plagiarism. This is probably itself a plagiarism, but I cannot remember who said it before me. If originality means thinking for oneself, and not thinking differently from other people, a man does not forfeit his claim to it by saying things which have occurred to others.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
London Evening Standard (1927)

Parallel to this, in James Marchant, ed., Wit and Wisdom of Dean Inge (1927), Inge is cited as saying, "Originality, I fear, is too often only undetected and frequently unconscious plagiarism."

The sentiment is, appropriately, not original with Inge; see here for more discussion and earlier uses.

Inge, William Ralph -- More Lay Thoughts of a Dean (1931)

Dave — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 12:11:10 +0000

There are two kinds of fools: one says, “This is old, therefore it is good”; the other says, “This is new, therefore it is better.”

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
More Lay Thoughts of a Dean (1931)

Inge, William Ralph -- More Lay Thoughts of a Dean (1931)

Dave — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:48:43 +0000

Personalize your sympathies; depersonalize you antipathies.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
More Lay Thoughts of a Dean (1931)

Inge, William Ralph -- More Lay Thoughts of a Dean (1931)

Dave — Wed, 09 Nov 2016 05:04:05 +0000

The proper time to influence the character of a child is about a hundred years before he is born.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
More Lay Thoughts of a Dean (1931)

Inge, William Ralph -- More Lay Thoughts of a Dean, Part 4, ch. 1 (1931)

Dave — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 16:50:53 +0000

Many people believe that they are attracted by God, or by Nature, when they are only repelled by man.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
More Lay Thoughts of a Dean, Part 4, ch. 1 (1931)

Inge, William Ralph -- Speculum Animae, Part 2, “Sunday Morning,” address, Cambridge (15 Jan 1911)

Dave — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 17:32:43 +0000

Let none of us delude himself by supposing that honesty is always the best policy. It is not.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
Speculum Animae, Part 2, “Sunday Morning,” address, Cambridge (15 Jan 1911)
(Source)

Inge's argument is not that honesty is not the most virtuous course, but that it is not always the most secularly advantageous course, and that such disadvantage is one of the costs of maintaining Christian virtue.

Inge, William Ralph -- The End of an Age: And Other Essays (1948)

Dave — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:38:45 +0000

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

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
The End of an Age: And Other Essays (1948)

Inge, William Ralph -- Lecture 22, Gifford Lectures, University of St Andrews, Scotland (1918)

Dave — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 21:31:31 +0000

A man may build himself a throne of bayonets, but he cannot sit in it.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
Lecture 22, Gifford Lectures, University of St Andrews, Scotland (1918)
(Source)

Reprinted in Philosophy of Plotinus, Vol. 2 (1923).

Inge, William Ralph -- Sermon (1932-02-09), St. Paul’s Cathedral, London

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Worry is interest paid on trouble before it falls due.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
Sermon (1932-02-09), St. Paul’s Cathedral, London
(Source)

As reported in The Shields Daily News, "Far and Near: Dean Inge on Worry," Northumberland, England (1932-02-10). In context:

Christ condemned worry as a sin -- perhaps He was the first to do so. And what good advice this was! "I have had many troubles," said someone, looking back on his life. "Most of them never happened." Worry is interest paid on trouble before it falls due.

Though Inge employed the phrase, it was in wide use already, having been crafted in 1905 by H. A. Thompson. See more here: Quote Origin: Worry Is Like Paying Interest On a Debt You Don’t Owe – Quote Investigator®.