John Henry Newman Quotes

89 Sourced Quotes

Where good and ill together blent,
Wage an undying strife.

John Henry Newman
I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it.

John Henry Newman
The attributes of God, though intelligible to us on their surface yet, for the very reason that they are infinite, transcend our comprehension, when they are dwelt upon, when they are followed out, and can only be received by faith.

John Henry Newman
Let us put ourselves into His hands, and not be startled though He leads us by a strange way, a mirabilis via, as the Church speaks. Let us be sure He will lead us right, that He will bring us to that which is, not indeed what we think best, nor what is best for another, but what is best for us.

John Henry Newman
Christian! hence learn to do thy part,
And leave the rest to Heaven.

John Henry Newman
Health of body and mind is a great blessing, if we can bear it.

John Henry Newman
A university training is the great ordinary means to a great but ordinary end; it aims at raising the intellectual tone of society.... It is the education which gives a man a clear conscious view of his own opinions and judgments, a truth in developing them, an eloquence in expressing them, and a force in urging them.

John Henry Newman
Reports in matters of this world are many, and our resources of mind for the discrimination of them very insufficient

John Henry Newman
Praise to the Holiest in the height,
And in the depth be praise;
In all his words most wonderful,
Most sure in all His ways.

John Henry Newman
It is as absurd to argue men, as to torture them, into believing.

John Henry Newman
Now what is it that moves our very hearts and sickens us so much at cruelty shown to poor brutes? … They have done us no harm and they have no power of resistance; it is the cowardice and tyranny of which they are the victims which make their sufferings so especially touching. Cruelty to animals is as if man did not love God. … There is something so very dreadful, so Satanic, in tormenting those who have never harmed us, who cannot defend themselves, who are utterly in our power.

John Henry Newman
There is such a thing as legitimate warfare: war has its laws; there are things which may fairly be done, and things which may not be done…He has attempted (as I may call it) to poison the wells.

John Henry Newman
Ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem [From shadows and symbols into the truth]!

John Henry Newman
And with the morn those angel faces smile
Which I have loved long since and lost awhile.

John Henry Newman
From the age of fifteen, dogma has been the fundamental principle of my religion: I know no other religion; I cannot enter into the idea of any other sort of religion; religion, as a mere sentiment, is to me a dream and a mockery.

John Henry Newman
Liberal Education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman. It is well to be a gentlemen, it is well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a candid, equitable, dispassionate mind, a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life.

John Henry Newman
It is thy very energy of thought
Which keeps thee from thy God.

John Henry Newman
A cloud of incense was rising on high; the people suddenly all bowed low; what could it mean? The truth flashed on him, fearfully yet sweetly; it was the Blessed Sacrament - it was the Lord Incarnate who was on the altar, who had come to visit and bless his people. It was the Great Presence, which makes a Catholic Church different from every other place in the world; which makes it, as no other place can be - holy.

John Henry Newman
Every breath of air and ray of light and heat, every beautiful prospect, is, as it were, the skirts of the (angel's) garments, the waving robes of those whose faces see God.

John Henry Newman
When men understand what each other mean, they see, for the most part, that controversy is either superfluous or hopeless.

John Henry Newman
By a garden is meant mystically a place of spiritual repose, stillness, peace, refreshment, delight.

John Henry Newman
There is in stillness oft a magic power
To calm the breast, when struggling passions lower;
Touch'd by its influence, in the soul arise
Diviner feelings, kindred with the skies.

John Henry Newman
To holy people the very name of Jesus is a name to feed upon, a name to transport. His name can raise the dead and transfigure and beautify the living.

John Henry Newman
There is a knowledge which is desirable, though nothing come of it, as being of itself a treasure, and a sufficient remuneration of years of labor.

John Henry Newman
Let us take things as we find them: let us not attempt to distort them into what they are not... We cannot make facts. All our wishing cannot change them. We must use them.

John Henry Newman
If then a practical end must be assigned to a University course, I say it is that of training good members of society.

John Henry Newman
It is the education which gives a man a clear, conscious view of their own opinions and judgements, a truth in developing them, an eloquence in expressing them, and a force in urging them. It teaches him to see things as they are, to go right to the point, to disentangle a skein of thought to detect what is sophistical and to discard what is irrelevant.

John Henry Newman
Virtue is its own reward, and brings with it the truest and highest pleasure; but if we cultivate it only for pleasure's sake, we are selfish, not religious, and will never gain the pleasure, because we can never have the virtue.

John Henry Newman
It is almost the definition of a gentleman to say that he is one who never inflicts pain.

John Henry Newman