Msgr. Ronald Knox

Daily quotes from the early 20th century English Catholic linguist, satirist, historian, author, and theologian.

[Msgr. Ronald Knox @MsgrRonaldKnox]

Order is the cipher by which Mind speaks to mind in the midst of chaos. #knox

[Msgr. Ronald Knox @MsgrRonaldKnox]

It is possible to argue that the true business of faith is not to produce emotional conviction in us but to teach us to do without it. #knox

[Msgr. Ronald Knox @MsgrRonaldKnox]

The highest exercise of hope...is to hope for perseverance and for Heaven when it looks, when it feels, as if you were going to lose both.

[Msgr. Ronald Knox @MsgrRonaldKnox]

Faith lives on mystery: that is its proper food; without mystery it can only languish. #knox

[Msgr. Ronald Knox @MsgrRonaldKnox]

To be present when two other people are arguing is, almost always, to be in a state of impotent fury at their joint incompetence. #knox

[Msgr. Ronald Knox @MsgrRonaldKnox]

The #Assumption was the 1st step toward reconciling all things in heaven & earth to his eternal Father, towards making all things new. #knox

[Msgr. Ronald Knox @MsgrRonaldKnox]

Criticism does not love the unpredictable. #knox

[Msgr. Ronald Knox @MsgrRonaldKnox]

There is no escaping from it. All our metaphysics...reshuffle our concepts as we will, must necessarily take us back to God. #knox

[Msgr. Ronald Knox @MsgrRonaldKnox]

Have we forgiven?
God's pardon is conditional on ours; the unmerciful servant forfeits, by one act, his sentence of reprieve. #knox

[Msgr. Ronald Knox @MsgrRonaldKnox]

With faith, we may save our own souls; we need the spirit of faith, much more of it than we have, if we are to save the world. #knox

[Msgr. Ronald Knox @MsgrRonaldKnox]

What is the use of encouraging children to grow older, if the grand lesson of life is, after all, to learn to be as young as they? #knox

[Msgr. Ronald Knox @MsgrRonaldKnox]

Sanctity is not a work done, it is a life lived.

[Msgr. Ronald Knox @MsgrRonaldKnox]

Only man has dignity; only man, therefore, can be funny. #knox

[Msgr. Ronald Knox @MsgrRonaldKnox]

So we must know what are the unalterable principles we hold, & why we hold them; we must see straight in a world that is full of moral fog.

[Msgr. Ronald Knox @MsgrRonaldKnox]

[The Church] insists on one thing: penitence...Beyond that, the Church will have nothing but tenderness for the sinner. #knox

[Msgr. Ronald Knox @MsgrRonaldKnox]

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

[Msgr. Ronald Knox @MsgrRonaldKnox]

Dogmas may fly out at the window but congregations do not come in at the door. #Knox

[Msgr. Ronald Knox @MsgrRonaldKnox]

Order is the cipher by which Mind speaks to mind in the midst of chaos. #knox