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 NewmanBrutes gaze on sights, they are arrested by sounds; and what they see and what they hear are sights and sounds only. The intellectof man, on the contrary, energises as well as his eye or ear, and perceives in sights or sounds something beyond them. It seizes and unites what the senses present to it; it grasps and forms what need not be seen or heard except in detail. It discerns in lines and colors, or in tones, what is beautiful and what is not. It gives them a meaning, and invests them with an idea.
John Henry NewmanIt is almost a definition of a gentleman to say that he is one who never inflicts pain.
John Henry NewmanWhen men understand what each other mean, they see, for the most part, that controversy is either superfluous or hopeless
John Henry NewmanA science is not mere knowledge, it is knowledge which has undergone a process of intellectual digestion. It is the grasp of many things brought together in one, and hence is its power; for, properly speaking, it is Science that is power, not Knowledge.
John Henry NewmanWe should ever conduct ourselves towards our enemy as if he were one day to be our friend.
John Henry NewmanIf 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.
John Henry NewmanIf we insist on being as sure as is conceivable... we must be content to creep along the ground, and never soar.
John Henry NewmanFaith is the result of the act of the will, following upon a conviction that to believe is a duty.
John Henry NewmanLife 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 NewmanHow 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 NewmanThought and speech are inseparable from each other. Matter and expression are parts of one; style is a thinking out into language.
John Henry NewmanMake me what Thou wouldst have me. I bargain for nothing. I make no terms. I seek for no previous information whither Thou art taking me. I will be what Thou wilt make me, and all that Thou wilt make me. I say not, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest, for I am weak, but I give myself to Thee, to lead me anywhither.
John Henry NewmanEvil has no substance of its own, but is only the defect, excess, perversion, or corruption of that which has substance.
John Henry NewmanSuch is the constitution of the human mind, that any kind of knowledge, if it be really such, is its own reward.
John Henry NewmanIn this world no one rules by love; if you are but amiable, you are no hero; to be powerful, you must be strong, and to have dominion you must have a genius for organizing.
John Henry NewmanGod created you to do him some particular service. He has given some work to you that he has not given to another. You have your mission. You shall do good.
John Henry NewmanTwo and two only supreme and luminously self-evident beings, myself and my Creator.
John Henry NewmanAnd with the morn those angel faces smile Which I have loved long since and lost awhile.
John Henry NewmanTo 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 NewmanGod has created all things for good; all things for their greatest good; everything for its own good. What is the good of one is not the good of another; what makes one man happy would make another unhappy. God has determined, unless I interfere with His plan, that I should reach that which will be my greatest happiness. He looks on me individually, He calls me by my name, He knows what I can do, what I can best be, what is my greatest happiness, and He means to give it me.
John Henry NewmanNothing is more common than for men to think that because they are familiar with words they understand the ideas they stand for.
John Henry NewmanEvery 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 NewmanIt'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.
John Henry NewmanFaith 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 NewmanIt is very difficult to get up resentment towards persons whom one has never seen.
John Henry NewmanVirtue 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 NewmanA man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault.
John Henry NewmanGod 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 NewmanO most sacred, most loving heart of Jesus, thou art concealed in the Holy Eucharist, and thou beatest for us still.... Thou art the heart of the Most High made man.... Thy Sacred Heart is the instrument and organ of Thy love. It did beat for us. It yearned for us. It ached for our salvation. It was on fire through zeal, that the glory of God might be manifested in and by us.... In worshipping thee I worship my incarnate God, my Emmanuel
John Henry NewmanWithout self-knowledge you have no root in yourselves personally; you may endure for a time, but under affliction or persecution your faith will not last. This is why many in this age (and in every age) become infidels, heretics, schismatics, disloyal despisers of the Church. They cast off the form of truth, because it never has been to them more than a form. They endure not, because they never have tasted that the Lord is gracious; and they never have had experience of His power and love, because they have never known their own weakness and need.
John Henry NewmanI will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end, which is quite beyond us. He does nothing in vain.
John Henry NewmanI 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