34 Quotes by Ronald Knox

Your see, it is no ordinary task. If you translate, say, the Summa of St. Thomas, you expect to be cross-examined by people who understand philosophy and by people who understand Latin; no one else. If you translate the Bible, you are liable to be cross-examined by anybody; because everybody thinks he knows already what the Bible means.

The motor-car, in brining us all closer together, by making it easy to have luncheon two counties away, has driven us all further apart, by making it unnecessary for us to know the people in the next bungalow. And so, once again, we have to thank civilization for nothing.

We can only abandon the Catholic Church for some spiritual home which is more of a home than the Catholic Church . . . Where are we to bind such a revelation, such a spiritual home, such sources of inspiration? Nowhere; there is no other system in the world which does even to claim what the Catholic Church claims. Are we to abandon the Catholic faith for something less than the Catholic faith?

The world knows that Catholics have a high standard of purity. But the world is not going to be impressed unless it is assured that Catholics keep it.

A good sermon should be like a woman's skirt: short enough to arouse interest but long enough to cover the essentials.

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

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

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

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