John Henry Newman

“The Pilgrim Queen(A Song)There sat a Lady all on the ground,Rays of the morning circled her round,Save thee, and hail to thee, Gracious and Fair,In the chill twilight what wouldst thou there?'Here I sit desolate,' sweetly said she,'Though I'm a queen, and my name is Marie:Robbers have rifled my garden and store,Foes they have stolen my heir from my bower. 'They said they could keep Him far better than I,In a palace all His, planted deep and raised high.'Twas a palace of ice, hard and cold as were they,And when summer came, it all melted away.'Next would they barter Him, Him the Supreme,For the spice of the desert, and gold of the stream;And me they bid wander in weeds and alone,In this green merry land which once was my own.'I look'd on that Lady, and out from her eyesCame the deep glowing blue of Italy's skies; And she raised up her head and she smiled, as a QueenOn the day of her crowning, so bland and serene.'A moment,' she said, 'and the dead shall revive;The giants are failing, the Saints are alive;I am coming to rescue my home and my reign,And Peter and Philip are close in my train.”

“God has created me to do some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work.”

“Let us put ourselves into His hands, and not be startled though He leads us by a strange way, a mirabilis via, as the Church speaks. Let us be sure He will lead us right, that He will bring us to that which is, not indeed what we think best, nor what is best for another, but what is best for us.”

“God 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.”

“God knows what is my greatest happiness, but I do not. There is no rule about what is happy and good; what suits one would not suit another. And the ways by which perfection is reached vary very much; the medicines necessary for our souls are very different from each other. Thus God leads us by strange ways; we know He wills our happiness, but we neither know what our happiness is, nor the way. We are blind; left to ourselves we should take the wrong way; we must leave it to Him.”

“Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt, as I understand the subject; difficulty and doubt are incommensurate.”

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

“Nothing would be done at all if one waited until one could do it so well that no one could find fault with it.”

“Such is the state of things in England, and it is well that it should be realised by all of us; but it must not be supposed for a moment that I am afraid of it. I lament it deeply, because I foresee that it may be the ruin of many souls; but I have no fear at all that it really can do aught of serious harm to the Word of God, to Holy Church, to our Almighty King, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, Faithful and True, or to His Vicar on earth. Christianity has been too often in what seemed deadly peril, that we should fear for it any new trial now. So far is certain; on the other hand, what is uncertain, and in these great contests commonly is uncertain, and what is commonly a great surprise, when it is witnessed, is the particular mode by which, in the event, Providence rescues and saves His elect inheritance. Sometimes our enemy is turned into a friend; sometimes he is despoiled of that special virulence of evil which was so threatening; sometimes he falls to pieces of himself; sometimes he does just so much as is beneficial, and then is removed. Commonly the Church has nothing more to do than to go on in her own proper duties, in confidence and peace; to stand still and to see the salvation of God.”

“God 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. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons.He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments.Therefore, I will trust Him, whatever 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. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. Still, He knows what He is about.”

“Lead, Kindly Light, amidst th'encircling gloom,Lead Thou me on!The night is dark, and I am far from home,Lead Thou me on!Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to seeThe distant scene; one step enough for me.I was not ever thus, nor prayed that ThouShouldst lead me on;I loved to choose and see my path; but nowLead Thou me on!I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years!So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it stillWill lead me on.O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, tillThe night is gone,And with the morn those angel faces smile,Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile!Meantime, along the narrow rugged path,Thyself hast trod,Lead, Saviour, lead me home in childlike faith,Home to my God.To rest forever after earthly strifeIn the calm light of everlasting life.”

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

“A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault.”

“Here below to live is to change and to be perfect is to have changed often.”

“Good is never accomplished except at the cost of those who do it, truth never breaks through except through the sacrifice of those who spread it.”

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

“To live is to change, and if you have lived long, you have changed often.”

“The love of our private friends is the only preparatory exercise for the love of all men.”

“To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”

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

“If 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.”

“A great memory does not make a mind, any more than a dictionary is a piece of literature.”

“To consider the world in its length and breadth, its various history, the many races of man, their starts, their fortunes, their mutual alienation, their conflicts; and then their ways, habits, governments, forms of worship; their enterprises, their aimless courses, their random achievements, and acquirements, the impotent conclusion of long-standing facts, the tokens so faint and broken of a superintending design, the blind evolution of what turn out to be great powers or truths, the progress of things, as if from unreasoning elements, not toward final causes, the greatness and littleness of man, his far-reaching aims, his short duration, the curtain hung over his futurity, the disappointments of life, the defeat of good, the success of evil, physical pain, mental anguish, the prevalence of sin, the pervading idolatries, the corruptions, the dreary hopeless irreligion, that condition of the whole race, so fearfully yet exactly described in the Apostle's words, "having no hope and without God in the world," - all this is a vision to dizzy and appall; and inflicts upon the mind the sense of a profound mystery, which is absolutely beyond human solution.”

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

“En un mundo superior puede ser de otra manera, pero aquí abajo, vivir es cambiar y ser perfecto es haber cambiado muchas veces.”

“We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe.”

“Growth is the only evidence of life.”

“I sought to hear the voice of God and climbed the topmost steeple, but God declared: "Go down again - I dwell among the people.”

“Cease, stranger, cease those witching notes, The art of syren choirs; Hush the seductive voice that floats Across the trembling wires. Music's ethereal power was given Not to dissolve our clay, But draw Promethean beams from heaven To purge the dross away.”