Frases de John Henry Newman

„Traté de escuchar la voz de Dios y trepé al campanario más alto, pero Dios declaró: "Desciende otra vez, habito entre la gente.“

—  John Henry Newman

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

—  John Henry Newman

„Ser mejor equivale a haber cambiado muchas veces.“

—  John Henry Newman

„Al negar toda autoridad trascendente se afirma que es el hombre quien se da el poder a sí mismo. A partir de ahí, como podemos ver en tantos ejemplos cercanos, se puede negar la potestad de los padres sobre los hijos, la validez de la Ley Natural o la misma existencia de una naturaleza humana quedando toda vida humana amenazada por la arbitrariedad del consenso. Así, la absolutización de lo humano a partir de la negación de lo divino irá acercando el advenimiento
del Anticristo. Newman se fija más en los signos que señalan la gran apostasía y que vincula al hecho de que todos los ámbitos de la vida social y política se estaban separando de lo religioso, intentando construir una vida humana sin ninguna referencia a Dios. La gran apostasía, en la que se enfriará la fe de muchos, precederá a la manifestación del Anticristo.“

—  John Henry Newman

Cuatro sermones sobre el Anticristo: La idea patrística del Anticristo en cuatro sermones

„Tenemos conocimiento del orden, la constancia y perpetua renovación del mundo material que nos rodea. A pesar de que cada una de sus partes es frágil y transitoria y que son inquietos y migratorios sus elementos, sin embargo, perdura. Está sometido a una ley de permanencia, y aunque muere una y otra vez, siempre vuelve a la vida. La disolución no hace más que dar nacimiento a nuevos modos de organización, y una muerte es la madre de mil vidas. Por lo tanto, cada hora es sólo un testimonio de cuán efímera y, sin embargo, segura y cierta es la gran totalidad. Es como una imagen en el agua, que siempre es la misma, aunque el agua fluya constantemente. El sol se esconde para levantarse de nuevo, el día es engullido por la oscuridad de la noche, para nacer de ella, tan puro como si nunca se hubiera apagado. La primavera se convierte en verano y, a través del verano y el otoño, en invierno, para retornar, con mayor seguridad, a triunfar sobre esa tumba hacia la cual se ha acercado rápidamente desde su primera hora. Nosotros lloramos los capullos de mayo por que se van a marchitar, pero sabemos que mayo es un día que se vengará de noviembre, por la rotación de ese solemne círculo que nunca se detiene, el cual nos enseña, en la cúspide de nuestra esperanza, que hemos de ser siempre equilibrados y que, en la profundidad de la desolación, no debemos desesperarnos nunca.“

—  John Henry Newman

La Segunda Primavera

„La llamaron Libertad, y literalmente la adoraron como a una divinidad. Parecería increíble que aquellos mismos hombres que se desembarazaron de toda religión terminasen adorando, en son de burla o por superstición, una nueva e insensata deidad de su invención, si no fuese porque los sucesos son tan recientes y notorios.“

—  John Henry Newman

Cuatro sermones sobre el Anticristo: La idea patrística del Anticristo en cuatro sermones
Variante: La llamaron Libertad, y literalmente la adoraron como a una divinidad. Parecería increíble que aquellos mismos hombres que se desembarazaron de toda religión terminasen adorando, en son de burla o por superstición, una nueva e insensata deidad de su invención, si no fuese porque los sucesos son tan recientes y notorios. Luego de abjurar de nuestro Señor y Salvador

„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

„The more I read of Athanasius, Theodoret, etc, the more I see that the ancients did make the Scriptures the basis of their belief.“

—  John Henry Newman, libro Apologia Pro Vita Sua

To Richard Hurrell Froude, August 23, 1835.
Letters and Correspondence of John Henry Newman During His Life in the English Church, 1890, Anne Mozley, ed., Longmans’s Green & Co., London, New York, Volume 2, p. 113. http://books.google.com/books?id=uak8AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA113&dq=%22the+more+i+read+of+athanasius,+theodoret%22&hl=en&ei=CeBlTqH1K4m2sQL91pm3Cg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22the%20more%20i%20read%20of%20athanasius%2C%20theodoret%22&f=false
Contexto: The more I read of Athanasius, Theodoret, etc, the more I see that the ancients did make the Scriptures the basis of their belief. The only question is, would they have done so in another point besides the θεολογία (theology), etc, which happened in the early ages to be in discussion? I incline to say the Creed is the faith necessary to salvation, as well as to Church communion, and to maintain that Scripture, according to the Fathers, is the authentic record and document of this faith.
It surely is reasonable that 'necessary to salvation' should apply to the Baptismal Creed: 'In the name of,' etc (vid. He who believeth etc.). Now the Apostles' Creed is nothing but this; for the Holy Catholic Church, etc [in it] are but the medium through which God comes to us. Now this θεολογία, I say, the Fathers do certainly rest on Scripture, as upon two tables of stone. I am surprised more and more to see how entirely they fall into Hawkins’s theory even in set words, that Scripture proves and the Church teaches. http://books.google.com/books?id=JbwJVBOvECwC&pg=PA66&dq=%22that+the+sacred+text+was+never+intended+to+teach+doctrine,+but+only+to+prove+it%22&hl=en&ei=k-RlTq__FOStsQKOwrCzCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22that%20the%20sacred%20text%20was%20never%20intended%20to%20teach%20doctrine%2C%20but%20only%20to%20prove%20it%22&f=false
I believe it would be extremely difficult to show that tradition is ever considered by them (in matters of faith) more than interpretative of Scripture. It seems that when a heresy rose they said at once ‘That is not according to the Church's teaching,’ i. e. they decided it by the praejudicium [N. B. prescription] of authority.
Again, when they met together in council, they brought the witness of tradition as a matter of fact, but when they discussed the matter in council, cleared their views, etc., proved their power, they always went to Scripture alone. They never said 'It must be so and so, because St. Cyrian says this, St. Clement explains in his third book of the "Paedagogue," etc.' and with reason; for the Fathers are a witness only as one voice, not in individual instances, or, much less, isolated passages, but every word of Scripture is inspired and available.

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

—  John Henry Newman

Letter to Mrs William Froude, 27 June 1848.

„Nothing would be done at all, if a man waited till he could do it so well, that no one could find fault with it.“

—  John Henry Newman

Lecture IX
Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England (1851)

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

—  John Henry Newman

Variante: In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.
Fuente: An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845), Chapter 1, Section 1, Part 7.

„Growth is the only evidence of life.“

—  John Henry Newman

Apologia pro Vita Sua http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/newman/apologia1.html (1864).

„A great memory does not make a philosopher, any more than a dictionary can be called grammar.“

—  John Henry Newman

Discourse VIII, pt. 10.
The Idea of a University (1873)

„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.“

—  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

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

—  John Henry Newman

Discourse VIII, pt. 10. http://books.google.com/books?id=YdrJkVPhptwC&q=%22it+is+Almost+a%22+%22a+gentle+man+to+say+he+is+one+who+never+inflicts+pain%22&pg=PA208#v=onepage
The Idea of a University (1873)

„Now what is it that moves our very hearts and sickens us so much at cruelty shown to poor brutes? … They have done us no harm and they have no power of resistance; it is the cowardice and tyranny of which they are the victims which make their sufferings so especially touching. Cruelty to animals is as if man did not love God. … There is something so very dreadful, so Satanic, in tormenting those who have never harmed us, who cannot defend themselves, who are utterly in our power.“

—  John Henry Newman

Parochial and Plain Sermons, London, 1868; quoted in Matthew Scully, [//books.google.it/books?id=SYY7AAAAQBAJ&pg=PT30 Dominion] (2002).

„To be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant.“

—  John Henry Newman

Introduction, Part 5.
An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845)

„Where good and ill together blent,
Wage an undying strife.“

—  John Henry Newman

A Martyr Convert http://www.newmanreader.org/works/verses/verse170.html, st. 3 (1856). Also in Callista Chapter 36 http://www.newmanreader.org/works/callista/chapter36.html (1855).