To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often. John Henry Newman

A great memory does not make a mind, any more than a dictionary is a piece of literature.
John Henry Newman

A great memory is never made synonymous with wisdom, any more than a dictionary would be called a treatise.
John Henry Newman

A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault.
John Henry Newman

Ability is sexless.
John Henry Newman

Calculation never made a hero.
John Henry Newman

Evil has no substance of its own, but is only the defect, excess, perversion, or corruption of that which has substance.
John Henry Newman

Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather that it shall ever have a beginning.
John Henry Newman

From the age of fifteen, dogma has been the fundamental principle of my religion: I know no other religion; I cannot enter into the idea of any other sort of religion; religion, as a mere sentiment, is to me a dream and a mockery.
John Henry Newman

Growth is the only evidence of life.
John Henry Newman

If we are intended for great ends, we are called to great hazards.
John Henry Newman

If we insist on being as sure as is conceivable... we must be content to creep along the ground, and never soar.
John Henry Newman

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.
John Henry Newman

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

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

It is as absurd to argue men, as to torture them, into believing.
John Henry Newman

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

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

Let us act on what we have, since we have not what we wish.
John Henry Newman

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

Men will die upon dogma but will not fall victim to a conclusion.
John Henry Newman

Nothing is more common than for men to think that because they are familiar with words they understand the ideas they stand for.
John Henry Newman

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

Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.
John Henry Newman

The love of our private friends is the only preparatory exercise for the love of all men.
John Henry Newman

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.
John Henry Newman

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.
John Henry Newman

To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.
John Henry Newman

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.
John Henry Newman

We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe.
John Henry Newman

The Idea of a University (1873)

* There is a knowledge which is desirable, though nothing come of it, as being of itself a treasure, and a sufficient remuneration of years of labor.
o Discourse V, pt. 6

* Knowledge is one thing, virtue is another.
o Discourse V, pt. 9

* The world is content with setting right the surface of things.
o Discourse VIII, pt. 8

* A great memory does not make a philosopher, any more than a dictionary can be called grammar.
o Discourse VIII, pt. 10

An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1878)

* To be deep in history is to cease to be protestant.
o Introduction, Part 5