175 Quotes by John Henry Newman

The minds of young people are pliable and elastic, and easily accommodate themselves to any one they fall in with.

Somehow I am necessary for God’s purpose, as necessary in my place as an archangel in his.

Of all points of faith, the being of a God is, to my own apprehension, encompassed with most difficulty, and yet borne in upon our minds with most power.

A 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...

Wine is good in itself, but not for a man in a fever. If our souls were in perfect health, riches and authority, and strong powers of mind, would be very suitable to us: but they are weak and diseased, and require so great a grace of God to bear these advantages well, that we may be well content to be without them.

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.

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

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.

Reason is God’s gift, but so are the passions. Reason is as guilty as passion.