John Henry Newman (1801–90) was a British theologian, philosopher, priest, apologist, and poet. Initially an Anglican clergyman and educator, he converted to Roman Catholicism as part of the Oxford movement and became a cardinal. He was regarded as one of the most influential figures of Victorian Britain.
Born in London, Newman was educated at Trinity College, Oxford. He became a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, which he quit in 1843 before joining the Catholic Church.
Newman was a principal figure in the Oxford movement, which sought to restore Catholic philosophy within the Church of England in opposition to its Protestant biases. He triggered a scandal with Tract 90 (1841,) which made a case that the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England could be squared with Roman Catholic dogma.
In 1846, Newman went to Rome, where he was ordained a priest. His published texts, including An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845,) sermons, and Letters and Diaries, influenced the Second Vatican Council (1962–65.)
Newman is remembered mainly for his autobiography, Apologia pro Vita Sua (1864,) an account of his spiritual progression. Pope Benedict XVI beatified him in 2010; Pope Francis made him a saint in 2019.
Newman also wrote The Idea of a University (1852,) an appeal for universities to proffer a liberal education aimed at the cultivation of the mind.
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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
Topics: Facts, Realism
It is as absurd to argue men, as to torture them, into believing.
—John Henry Newman
Topics: Belief, Faith
All men have a reason, but not all men can give a reason.
—John Henry Newman
Topics: Perspective
Growth is the only evidence of life.
—John Henry Newman
Topics: Growth, Change
If we are intended for great ends, we are called to great hazards.
—John Henry Newman
Topics: Danger, Risk
And with the morn those angel faces smile
Which I have loved long since and lost awhile.
—John Henry Newman
Topics: Sympathy
If then a practical end must be assigned to a University course, I say it is that of training good members of society. Its art is the art of social life, and its end is fitness for the world. It neither confines its views to particular professions on the one hand, nor creates heroes or inspires genius on the other. Works indeed of genius fall under no art; heroic minds come under no rule; a University is not a birthplace of poets or of immortal authors, of founders of schools, leaders of colonies, or conquerors of nations. It does not promise a generation of Aristotles or Newtons, of Napoleons or Washingtons, of Raphaels or Shakespeares, though such miracles of nature it has before now contained within its precincts. Nor is it content on the other hand with forming the critic or the experimentalist, the economist or the engineer, though such too it includes within its scope. But a University training is the great ordinary means to an great but ordinary end; it aims at raising the intellectual tone of society, at cultivating the public mind, at purifying the national taste, at supplying true principles to popular enthusiasm and fixed aims to popular aspiration, at giving enlargement and sobriety to the ideas of the age, at facilitating the exercise of political power, and refining the intercourse of private life. 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
Topics: Education
It is almost a definition of a gentleman to say that he is one who never inflicts pain.
—John Henry Newman
Topics: Manners
The love of our private friends is the only preparatory exercise for the love of all men.
—John Henry Newman
Topics: Friends and Friendship
Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning.
—John Henry Newman
Topics: Fear, Carpe-diem, Beginnings, Anxiety
Faith … acts promptly and boldly on the occasion, on slender evidence.
—John Henry Newman
Topics: Faith, Decisions, Doubt, Uncertainty, Belief
Nothing would be done at all if one waited until one could do it so well that no one could find fault with it.
—John Henry Newman
Topics: Perfectionism, Perfection, Risk-taking
A great memory is never made synonymous with wisdom, any more than a dictionary would be called a treatise.
—John Henry Newman
Topics: Memory
Calculation never made a hero.
—John Henry Newman
Topics: Instincts, Risk, Reason
Conscience is the true vicar of Christ in the soul; a prophet in its information; a monarch in its peremptoriness; a priest in its blessings or anathemas, according as we obey or disobey it.
—John Henry Newman
Topics: Conscience
Learn to do thy part and leave the rest to Heaven.
—John Henry Newman
If we insist on being as sure as is conceivable … we must be content to creep along the ground, and can never soar.
—John Henry Newman
Topics: Doubt, Risk-taking, Uncertainty
Faith is the result of the act of the will, following upon a conviction that to believe is a duty.
—John Henry Newman
Topics: Faith, Belief
If then the power of speech is as great as any that can be named,—if the origin of language is by many philosophers considered nothing short of divine—if by means of words the secrets of the heart are brought to light, pain of soul is relieved, hidden grief is carried off, sympathy conveyed, experience recorded, and wisdom perpetuated,—if by great authors the many are drawn up into unity, national character is fixed, a people speaks, the past and the future, the East and the West are brought into communication with each other,—if such men are, in a word, the spokesmen and the prophets of the human family—it will not answer to make light of Literature or to neglect its study: rather we may be sure that, in proportion as we master it in whatever language, and imbibe its spirit, we shall ourselves become in our own measure the ministers of like benefits to others—be they many or few, be they in the obscurer or the more distinguished walks of life—who are united to us by social ties, and are within the sphere of our personal influence.
—John Henry Newman
Topics: Communication
I sought to hear the voice of God and climbed the topmost steeple, but God declared: “Go down again – I dwell among the people”.
—John Henry Newman
Health of body and mind is a great blessing, if we can bear it.
—John Henry Newman
Topics: Health
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.
—John Henry Newman
Topics: Serenity
Courage does not consist in calculation, but in fighting against chances.
—John Henry Newman
Topics: Courage
In a higher world it is otherwise; but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to change often.
—John Henry Newman
Topics: Generations, Change
One secret act of self-denial, one sacrifice of inclination to duty, is worth all the mere good thoughts, warm feelings, passionate prayers in which idle people indulge themselves.
—John Henry Newman
Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.
—John Henry Newman
Topics: Difficulty, Doubt
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