Quotes from 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... 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.

Nothing would be done at all if one waited until one could do it so well that no one could find fault with it.

I shall drink to the Pope, if you please, still, to conscience first, and to the Pope afterwards.

Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt, as I understand the subject; difficulty and doubt are incommensurate.

God knows what is my greatest happiness, but I do not. There is no rule about what is happy and good; what suits one would not suit another. And the ways by which perfection is reached vary very much; the medicines necessary for our souls are very different from each other. Thus God leads us by strange ways; we know He wills our happiness, but we neither know what our happiness is, nor the way. We are blind; left to ourselves we should take the wrong way; we must leave it to Him.

Providence has delivered me of every worldly passion, save this one; the desire to acquire books, new or old books of any kind, whose charms I cannot persuade myself to resist.

Cease, stranger, cease those witching notes, The art of syren choirs; Hush the seductive voice that floats Across the trembling wires. Music's ethereal power was given Not to dissolve our clay, But draw Promethean beams from heaven To purge the dross away.

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.

But one aspect of Revelation must not be allowed to exclude or to obscure another; and Christianity is dogmatical, devotional, practical all at once; it is esoteric and exoteric; it is indulgent and strict; it is light and dark; it is love, and it is fear.

Boys do not fully know what is good and what is evil; they do wrong things at first almost innocently. Novelty hides vice from them; there is no one to warn them or give them rules; and they become slaves of sin, while they are learning what sin is.

Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather that it shall never have a beginning.

Cruelty to animals is as if humans did not love God.

I sought to hear the voice of God and climbed the topmost steeple, but God declared: "Go down again - I dwell among the people.

Purity prepares the soul for love, and love confirms the soul in purity.

Time hath a taming hand.

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

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.

Good is never accomplished except at the cost of those who do it, truth never breaks through except through the sacrifice of those who spread it.

A universityeducates the intellect to reason well in all matters, to reach out towards truth, and to grasp it.

It's really not a difficult decision when you reflect on it, ... The situation is just so tenuous with where it's going to hit. You don't want to take any chances.

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

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.

The night is dark, and I am far from home.

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.