“Only man has dignity; only man, therefore, can be funny.”

— Ronald Knox

Essays in Satire, Introduction (1928)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Only man has dignity; only man, therefore, can be funny." by Ronald Knox?

Ronald Knox photo

Ronald Knox 12

English priest and theologian 1888–1957

Related quotes

“Honor and dignity of man is only in virtue and piety.”

Husayn ibn Ali (626–680) The grandson of Muhammad and the son of Ali ibn Abi Talib

Majlisi, Bihārul Anwār, vol.78, p. 128
Religious-based Quotes

“Perhaps the only true dignity of man is his capacity to despise himself.”

George Santayana (1863–1952) 20th-century Spanish-American philosopher associated with Pragmatism

Introduction to The Ethics of Spinoza (1910)

“Only man can be absurd: for only man can be dignified.”

G. K. Chesterton book All Things Considered

"Spiritualism"
All Things Considered (1908)
Context: It is not funny that anything else should fall down; only that a man should fall down. No one sees anything funny in a tree falling down. No one sees a delicate absurdity in a stone falling down. No man stops in the road and roars with laughter at the sight of the snow coming down. The fall of thunderbolts is treated with some gravity. The fall of roofs and high buildings is taken seriously. It is only when a man tumbles down that we laugh. Why do we laugh? Because it is a grave religious matter: it is the Fall of Man. Only man can be absurd: for only man can be dignified.

“Religion in its humility restores man to his only dignity, the courage to live by grace.”

George Santayana (1863–1952) 20th-century Spanish-American philosopher associated with Pragmatism

Source: Dialogues in Limbo (1926), Ch. 4

“But there is only one thing that has power completely, and this is love. Because when a man loves, he seeks no power, and therefore he has power.”

Alan Paton (1903–1988) South African writer and activist

Source: Cry, The Beloved Country

“Only the man who has enough good in him to feel the justice of the penalty can be punished; the others can only be hurt.”

William Ernest Hocking (1873–1966) American philosopher

The Coming World Civilization (1956), p. 7.

“I believe in only one thing and that thing is human liberty. If ever a man is to achieve anything like dignity, it can happen only if superior men are given absolute freedom to think what they want to think and say what they want to say. I am against any man and any organization which seeks to limit or deny that freedom... [and] the superior man can be sure of freedom only if it is given to all men.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

As quoted in Letters of H. L. Mencken (1961) edited by Guy J. Forgue, p. xiii
1940s–present

“Only the man who has known freedom
Can define his prison.”

Catherine Fisher book Incarceron

Source: Incarceron

“Man of old who could not fight disease and succumbed in multitudes to yellow fever or any other plague could not lay claim to dignity. Only the man who builds hospitals, discovers therapeutic techniques, and saves lives is blessed with dignity.”

Joseph B. Soloveitchik book The Lonely Man of Faith

Joseph B. Soloveitchik, The Lonely Man of Faith, p. 16 (1965)

“Marriage is a union between two persons — one man and one woman. A woman who has given herself up to one, can not give herself up to a second, for her whole dignity requires that she should belong only to this one.”

Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814) German philosopher

Source: The Science of Rights 1796, p. 406

Related topics

Dignity
Man