Quotes by Ralph W. Sockman

The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.

As long as we can keep our international relations in the realm of conference rather than open conflict, we are giving truth more time to vindicate itself. And what we ourselves need is more faith in the power of truth.

Our Creator has put in us hungers that this earth can- not satisfy. We cannot be completely self-contained on earth. Physical sense cannot give us a full life, nor can knowledge alone. No life is full unless it is linked to some- thing that goes on after we are dead.... If we have nothing more to live for than just to get ahead in a competitive system, then democracy will go down before other philosophies.

When we count on chance in lieu of law and labor, we weaken our healthy attitudes toward work, our fellow men and our God.

The test of tolerance comes when we are in a majority; the test of courage comes when we are in a minority.

The test of our religion is whether it fits us to meet emergencies. A man has no more character than he can command in a time of crisis.

Good habits, which bring our lower passions and appetites under automatic control, leave our natures free to explore the larger experiences of life. Too many of us divide and dissipate our energies in debating actions which should be taken for granted.

Habit must play a larger place in our religious life. We worship when we feel like it, we pray when we feel like it. We read the Bible when we feel like it. Leaving our religious exercises to the promptings of impulse, we become creatures of impulse rather than soldiers of Christ. An army made up of creatures of impulse would be only a mob. So is a church.

True liberty consists not merely in being free from something, but also in being free for something.

Gentleness is a divine trait: nothing is so divine as gentleness, and nothing is so gentle as real strength.