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

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...

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.

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.

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

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

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...

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

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.

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.

Mr Kingsley begins then by exclaiming- ‘O the chicanery, the wholesale fraud, the vile hypocrisy, the conscience-killing tyranny of Rome! We have not far to seek for an evidence of it. There’s Father Newman to wit: one living specimen is worth a hundred dead ones. He, a Priest writing of Priests, tells us that lying...

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

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...

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.

It is beautiful in a picture to wash the disciples’ feet; but the sands of the real desert have no lustre in them to compensate for the servile nature of the occupation.

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.

A university training is the great ordinary means to a great but ordinary end; it aims at raising the intellectual tone of society…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...

Calculation never made a hero.

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...

Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather that it shall never have a beginning.

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

We must make up our minds to be ignorant of much, if we would know anything.

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

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.

Without self-knowledge you have no root in yourselves personally; you may endure for a time, but under affliction or persecution your faith will not last. This is why many in this age (and in every age) become infidels, heretics, schismatics, disloyal despisers of the Church. They cast off the form of truth, because it never...

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

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

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

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

Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.

Growth is the only evidence of life.

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

And this is the sense of the word “grammar” which our inaccurate student detests, and this is the sense of the word which every sensible tutor will maintain. His maxim is “a little, but well”; that is, really know what you say you know: know what you know and what you do not know; get...

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

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

Ability is sexless.

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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