John Henry Newman Quotes - Page 5

It is often said that second thoughts are best. So they are in matters of judgment but not in matters of conscience.

Egotism is true modesty. In religious enquiry each of us can speak only for himself.

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

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

Conscience is the aboriginal Vicar of Christ.

In 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.

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

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

To the irreligious person heaven would be hell.

Lions would have fared better, had lions been the artists.

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

The world is content with setting right the surface of things.

Go down again - I dwell among the people.

Thought and speech are inseparable from each other. Matter and expression are parts of one; style is a thinking out into language.

Faith ventures and hazards . . . counting the costs and delighting in the sacrifice.

Now what is it moves our very hearts, and sickens us so much at cruelty shown to poor brutes? I suppose this first, that they have done no harm; next, that they have no power whatever of resistance; it is the cowardice and tyranny of which they are the victims which makes their sufferings so especially touching.

There is in stillness oft a magic power To calm the breast when struggling passions lower, Touched by its influence, in the soul arise Diviner feelings, kindred with the skies.

Literature stands related to Man as Science stands to Nature; it is his history.

It is very difficult to get up resentment towards persons whom one has never seen.

The ears of the common people are holier than the hearts of the priests.

Two and two only supreme and luminously self-evident beings, myself and my Creator.

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

Man is emphatically self-made.

Living Nature, not dull art Shall plan my ways and rule my Heart.

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.