John Henry Newman Quotes

89 Sourced Quotes

Reason is one thing and faith is another and reason can as little be made a substitute for faith, as faith can be made a substitute for reason.

John Henry Newman
True religion is slow in growth, and, when once planted, is difficult of dislodgement; but its intellectual counterfeit has no root in itself: it springs up suddenly, it suddenly withers.

John Henry Newman
Courage does not consist in calculation, but in fighting against chances.

John Henry Newman
How can we feel our need of His help, or our dependence on Him, or our debt to Him, or the nature of His gift to us, unless we know ourselves.... This is why many in this age (and in every age) become infidels, heretics, schismatics, disloyal despisers of the Church.... They have never had experience of His power and love, because they have never known their own weakness and need.

John Henry Newman
It is not God's way that great blessings should descend without the sacrifice first of great sufferings. If the truth is to be spread to any wide extent among the people, how can we dream, how can we hope, that trial and trouble shall not accompany its going forth.

John Henry Newman
I see nothing in the theory of evolution inconsistent with an Almighty Creator and Protector.

John Henry Newman
All that is good, all that is true, all that is beautiful, all that is beneficent, be it great or small, be it perfect or fragmentary, natural as well as supernatural, moral as well as material, comes from God.

John Henry Newman
I wonder what day I shall die on - one passes year by year over one's death day, as one might pass over one's grave.

John Henry Newman
Faith is illuminative, not operative; it does not force obedience, though it increases responsibility; it heightens guilt, but it does not prevent sin. The will is the source of action.

John Henry Newman
The heart is commonly reached, not through the reason, but through the imagination, by means of direct impressions, by the testimony of facts and events, by history, by description. Persons influence us, voices melt us, looks subdue us, deeds inflame us. Many a man will live and die upon a dogma; no man will be a martyr for a conclusion.

John Henry Newman
O loving wisdom of our God
when all was sin and shame,
a second Adam to the fight
and to the rescue came.

John Henry Newman
Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,
Lead Thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home—
Lead Thou me on!
Keep Thou my feet: I do not ask to see
The distant scene,—one step enough for me.

John Henry Newman
We must make up our minds to be ignorant of much, if we would know anything.

John Henry Newman
Life passes, riches fly away, popularity is fickle, the senses decay, the world changes. One alone is true to us; One alone can be all things to us; One alone can supply our need.

John Henry Newman
There are wounds of the spirit which never close and are intended in God's mercy to bring us nearer to Him, and to prevent us leaving Him by their very perpetuity. Such wounds then may almost be taken as a pledge, or at least as a ground for a humble trust, that God will give us the great gift of perseverance to the end. This is how I comfort myself in my own great bereavements.

John Henry Newman
If Physical Science be dangerous, as I have said, it is dangerous, because it necessarily ignores the idea of moral evil.

John Henry Newman
You must be patient, you must wait for the eye of the soul to be formed in you. Religious truth is reached, not by reasoning, but by an inward perception. Anyone can reason; only disciplined, educated, formed minds can perceive.

John Henry Newman
Religion indeed enlightens, terrifies, subdues; it gives faith, it inflicts remorse, it inspires resolutions, it draws tears, it inflames devotion, but only for the occasion.

John Henry Newman
Stuffing birds or playing stringed instruments is an elegant pastime, and a resource to the idle, but it is not education.

John Henry Newman
Firmly I believe and truly God is Three, and God is One;
And I next acknowledge duly Manhood taken by the Son.

John Henry Newman
It is often said that second thoughts are best; so they are in matters of judgment but not in matters of conscience.

John Henry Newman
God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission.

John Henry Newman
To be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant.

John Henry Newman
To take up the cross of Christ is no great action done once for all; it consists in the continual practice of small duties which are distasteful to us.

John Henry Newman
If I am obliged to bring religion into after-dinner toasts (which indeed does not seem quite the thing) I shall drink—to the Pope, if you please—still, to Conscience first, and to the Pope afterwards.

John Henry Newman