Quotes bu Author N

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JOHN NEWTON

Thomas Nagel

I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn't just that I don't believe in God and, naturally, I hope that I'm right in my belief. It's that I hope there is no God! I don't want there to be a God; I don't want the universe to be like that. --Thomas Nagel _The Last Word_

V.S. Naipaul (1932 &endash; )

Islam is in its origins an Arab religion. Everyone not an Arab who is a Muslim is a convert. Islam is not simply a matter of conscience or private belief. It makes imperial demands. A convert's worldview alters. His holy places are in Arab lands; his sacred language is Arabic. His idea of history alters. He rejects his own; he becomes, whether he likes it or not, a part of the Arab story. The convert has to turn away from everything that is his. The disturbance for societies is immense, and even after a thousand years can remain unresolved; the turning away has to be done again and again. People develop fantasies about who and what they are; and in the Islam of converted countries there is an element of neurosis and nihilism. These countries can be easily set on the boil. --V.S. Naipaul

Fantasy is literature for teenagers. V. S. Naipaul (1932-____) In "W.O.W. - Writers on Writing," by Jon Winokur, 1990.

Ogden Nash

Adam
had'em
Ogden Nash . A Dissertation on the Antiquity of Fleas
To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you're wrong, admit it;
Whenever you're right, shut up.
Ogden Nash

There are many things that money can't buy, but it's very funny -- Have you ever tried to buy them _without_ money? -- Ogden Nash

So I hope husbands and wives will continue to debate and combat over everything debatable and combatable, Because I believe a little incompatibility is the spice of life, particularly if he has income and she is pattable. --Ogden Nash

There was a young girl of Connecticut
Who flagged the express with her pecticut.
Which her elders defined,
As presence of mind,
But deplorable absence of ecticut.
Ogden Nash

George Jean Nathan (1882-1958)

No man can think clearly when his fists are clenched. -George Jean Nathan

It is also said of me that I now and then contradict myself. Yes, I improve wonderfully as time goes on.-- George Jean Nathan (1882-1958)

Carry Nation (1846 &endash; 1911)

Men are nicotine-soaked, beer-besmirched, whisky-greased, red-eyed devils. - Carry Nation (1846 &endash; 1911)

Gregory Nazianzen

What he was, he laid aside; what he was not, he assumed. He takes upon himself the poverty of my flesh so that I may receive the riches of his divinity. Gregory Nazianzen

Richard Needham

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills, & wills.-Richard Needham

Jawaharlal Nehru (1889 &endash; 1964)

Most things, except agriculture, can wait. - Jawaharlal Nehru (1889 &endash; 1964)

Stephen Neill (1900-1984)

Theologically, we have been discovering anew that the Church is not an appendage to the Gospel: it is itself a part of the Gospel. The Gospel cannot be separated from that new people of God in which its nature is to be made manifest. --Stephen Neill (1900-1984)

It was on the last night of His life, when His enemies were all around Him, that He spoke to His disciples of the joy that no man taketh away. Read again the story of His Passion: Jesus is seen throughout as calm, quiet, and confident. His last word is, ìFather, into Thy hands I commit my spirit.î Someone may say, 'Yes, but He knew that He was going to rise from the dead.' But have we not the same promise for ourselves? ... Stephen Neill (1900-1984), The Christian Character [1955]

The ordinary group of worshipping Christians, as the preacher sees them from the pulpit, does not look like a collection of very joyful people, in fact, they look on the whole rather sad, tired, depressed people. It is certain that such people will never win the world for Christ... It is no use trying to pretend: we may speak of joy and preach about it: but, unless we really have the joy of Christ in our hearts and manifest it, our words will carry no conviction to our hearers. ... Stephen Neill (1900-1984), The Christian Character [1955]

Life is filled with meaning as soon as Jesus Chrst enters into it.-- Stephen Neill in The Lion Christian Quotation Collection, 1997

The purpose of revelation is restoration, the renewal in us of that likeness to God which man lost by sin.---- Stephen Neill in The Lion Christian Quotation Collection, 1997

There is power here (in Jesus) but there is no violence. There is authority, but it is the authority of one who has taken upon himself the form of a servant.
Stephen Neill in The Lion Christian Quotation Collection, 1997

Christian holiness, whether for the church or for the individual, can never be a static thing, something gained once for all. It has to be maintained amidst conflicts and perils that are renewed day by day. It is a moving thing; it can only exist as a function of plilgrimage.---- Stephen Neill in The Lion Christian Quotation Collection, 1997

This Christian claim [of universal validity] is naturally offensive to the adherents of every other religious system. It is almost as offensive to modern man, brought up in the atmosphere of relativism, in which tolerance is regarded almost as the highest of the virtues. But we must not suppose that this claim to universal validity is something that can quietly be removed from the Gospel without changing it into something entirely different from what it is... Jesus' life, his method, and his message do not make sense, unless they are interpreted in the light of his own conviction that he was in fact the final and decisive word of God to men... For the human sickness there is one specific remedy, and this is it. There is no other.- Stephen Neill

Horatio Nelson (1758-1805)

You must hate a Frenchman as you do the devil. -- Horatio Nelson

Now I can do no more. We must trust to the great disposer of all events, and to the justice of our cause.
Nelson to Sir Henry Blackwood, at Trafalgar having signalled the fleet to engage the enemy more closely.

I have only one eye: I have a right to be blind sometimes: I really do not see the signal
Horatio Nelson routs the French at the Battle of Copenhagen, 2 April 1801, ignoring Admiral Parker's order to disengage.

I can neither eat nor sleep for thinking of You, my dearest love. I never touch even pudding. -- Horatio Nelson to Lady Emma Hamilton, 1800

There can be no place for self entirely - Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) to his captains.

Howard Nemerov (1920 &endash; 1991)

The secrets of success are a good wife and a steady job. My wife told me. Howard Nemerov (1920 &endash; 1991)

Richard John Neuhaus

The problem, of course, is that neither [church nor state] is prepared to remain within its institutional boundaries. Government, if it is to be sustainable, engages beliefs and loyalties of an ultimate sort that can properly be called religious. As the impulse of the modern state is to define all public space as governmental space, so the consequence is a tendency toward "civil religion." Religion, on the other hand, if it represents a comprehensive belief system, speaks to the human condition in all its aspects, including the right ordering (the government) of public life....Thus each institution is, in the eyes of the other, constantly bursting its bounds. Therein is the foundation of the open-ended argument between church and state. Open-ended, that is, so long as a society professes to be democratic. -- Richard John Neuhaus, The Naked Public Square, 1984

Thousands of medical ethicists and bioethicists professionally guide the unthinkable on its passage through the debatable on its way to becoming the justifiable until it is finally established as the unexceptionable. -- Richard John Neuhaus

As is well known, the constitution of the European Union very pointedly makes no reference to Christianity in its preamble alluding to European identity. This fall the leaders of member nations gathered in Rome to formally sign the constitution. The signing took place on the Capitolino, a beautiful square designed by Michelangelo. The leaders were photographed sitting beneath a huge statue of the fifth-century Pope Innocent I. In the same room is a fine bust of the emperor Constantine. One expects that some of the politicians had a hard time remembering that Christianity played no part in the formation of Europe. -- Richard John Neuhaus, _First Things_, Jan. 2005, http://firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0501/public.html

And the demon cried out in a loud voice, "What have you to do with us, O Jesus of Nazareth? I know who you are, the Holy One of God!"
And Jesus answered him, saying, "Relax. I've come to celebrate our diversity. --Richard John Neuhaus,

Still today many subscribe to the infamous assertion of E. M. Forster that, if he had to choose between betraying his country and betraying his friends, he hoped he would have the guts to betray his country. Forgotten is the reality that one is betraying one's friends by betraying one's country. Forgotten, too, is the fact that those who are the friends of tyrants and mass murderers should not be counted as friends. -- Richard John Neuhaus

Socialism is the religion people get when they lose their religion. --Richard John Neuhaus, _First Things_, August/September, 2000

In the gay [Catholic] community, it would seem, the maxim is: love the sin and love the sinner, but hate anyone who calls it a sin or him a sinner. -- Richard John Neuhaus, "Scandal Time (Continued)", _First Things, June/July 2002

Socialism is the religion people get when they lose their religion. - Richard John Neuhaus

One can find innumerable dumb things said and done by Christians in the name of Christianity, both in the past and at present&emdash;perhaps especially at present. The propensity to say and do dumb things, and even wicked things, is simply part of human nature. One can blame the Church or Christianity for such things only on the thoroughly unwarranted assumption that Christianity claims to have abolished human nature.-- Richard John Neuhaus

Alfred E. Neuman

It's not just the ups and downs that make life difficult. It's the jerks. Alfred E. Neuman

If your nose runs and your feet smell, then you're built upside down. Alfred E. Neuman

George Neumayr

Modern liberalism, even as its philosophers hold that no act is objectively sinful, treats hypocrisy as a serious sin. Why? If nothing is sinful, why is hypocrisy sinful? Hypocrisy is sinful -- that is, damaging to the soul -- if the moral principles the hypocrite voices then violates are true. But liberals tell us those principles aren't true, that humans can depart from them without damage to their character. So what's the moral problem with violating a moral code liberals consider false in the first place?
Hypocrisy is a moral problem, but liberals can't reach that conclusion on the basis of liberal moral philosophy. In order to denounce it, they have to suspend their customary moral relativism and borrow the principles of conservative moral philosophy. Then, once the target of their moral outrage over hypocrisy is thoroughly eviscerated, they abandon those principles and return to a skepticism about right and wrong in which all forms of deception, including hypocrisy, are defensible.--George Neumayr, "Self-Indulgent Liberal Man", _American Spectator_

Jacob Neusner

It's time to say that America is a better place to be a Jew than Jerusalem. If there ever was a promised land, we Jewish Americans are living in it. Rabbi Jacob Neusner, 1987

Sir Henry Newbolt (1862-1938)

THERE'S a breathless hush in the Close to-night -
Ten to make and the match to win -
A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
An hour to play and the last man in.
And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat,
Or the selfish hope of a season's fame,
But his Captain's hand on his shoulder smote
"Play up! play up! and play the game!"

The sand of the desert is sodden red, -
Red with the wreck of a square that broke; -
The Gatling's jammed and the colonel dead,
And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.
The river of death has brimmed his banks,
And England's far, and Honour a name,
But the voice of schoolboy rallies the ranks,
"Play up! play up! and play the game!"

This is the word that year by year
While in her place the School is set
Every one of her sons must hear,
And none that hears it dare forget.
This they all with a joyful mind
Bear through life like a torch in flame,
And falling fling to the host behind -
"Play up! play up! and play the game!"
Sir Henry Newbolt (1862-1938) Vitai Lampada

John Henry Newman

How can we feel our need of His help, or our dependence on Him, or our debt to Him, or the nature of His gift to us, unless we know ourselves.... This is why many in this age (and in every age) become infidels, heretics, schismatics, disloyal despisers of the Church.... They have never had experience of His power and love, because they have never known their own weakness and need. John Henry Newman

May I be patient! It is so difficult to make real what one believes, and to make these trials, as they are intended, real blessings.... John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often. ---John Henry Newman, _The Development of Christian Doctrine_, 1834

Never... think we have a due knowledge of ourselves till we have been exposed to various kinds of temptations, and tried on every side. Integrity on one side of our character is no voucher for integrity on another. We cannot tell how we should act if brought under temptations different from those we have hitherto experienced. This thought should keep us humble. We are sinners, but we do not know how great. He alone knows who died for our sins.
John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

Quarrels would not last long if the fault were only on one side. La Rochefoucauld, Maxims Half the controversies in the world are verbal ones; and could they be brought to a plain issue they would be brought to a prompt termination. Parties engaged in them would then perceive either that in substance they agreed together, or that their difference was one of first principles. We need not dispute, we need not prove, we need but define. At all events, let us, if we can, do this first of all and then see who are left for us to dispute; what is left for us to prove. -- John Newman

In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often. -- John Henry Newman

After the fever of life &emdash; after weariness, sicknesses, fightings and despondings, languor and fretfulness, struggling and failing, struggling and succeeding &emdash; after all the changes and chances of this troubled and unhealthy state, at length comes death &emdash; at length the white throne of God &emdash; at length the beatific vision. J. H. Newman

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

The glory of the Gospel is, not that it destroys the law, but that it makes it cease to be a bondage; not that it gives us freedom from it, but in it; and the notion of the Gospel which I have been describing as cold and narrow is, not that of supposing Christianity a law, but a supposing it to be scarcely more than a law, and thus leaving us where it found us . . . They have not merely the promise of grace; they have its presence. They have not merely the conditional prospect of a reward; for a blessing, nay, unspeakable, fathomless, illimitable, infinite, eternal blessings are poured into their very hearts, even as a first step and an earnest from God our Saviour, of what He will do for those who love Him. They "are passed from death unto life," and are the children of God and heirs of heaven.
J H Newman Sermon: "The State of Grace," 1838. From Parochial and Plain Sermons, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1987, pp. 816-817 (orig. 8 vols., 1834-1843)

For thirty, forty, fifty years I have resisted to the best of my powers the spirit of liberalism in religion. Never did Holy Church need champions against it more sorely than now when, alas! it is an error over spreading, as a snare, the whole earth . . . Liberalism in religion is the doctrine that there is no positive truth in religion, but that one creed is as good as another . . . It is inconsistent with any recognition of any religion, as true. It teaches that all are to be tolerated, for all are matters of opinion. Revealed religion is not a truth, but a sentiment and a taste; not an objective fact, not miraculous; and it is the right of each individual to make it say just what strikes his fancy . . . Since then, religion is so personal a peculiarity and so private a possession, we must of necessity ignore it in the intercourse of man with man . . . Religion is in no sense the bond of society . . . Instead of the Church's authority and teaching, they would substitute first of all a universal and a thoroughly secular education . . . As to Religion, it is a private luxury, which a man may have if he will; but which of course he must pay for, and which he must not obtrude upon others, or indulge in to their annoyance.
J H Newman, Biglietto speech, upon becoming a Cardinal in 1879. From John Henry Newman: A Biography, by Ian Ker, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988, pp. 720-721; also excerpts from Newman Today, ed. Stanley L. Jaki, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1989, from chapter "Newman and Liberalism," by Marvin R. O'Connell, pp. 88-89

The religion of beauty, imagination, and philosophy, without constraint moral or intellectual, a religion speculative and self-indulgent. Pantheism, indeed, is the great deceit which awaits the Age to come. --John Henry Newman, _Difficulties of Anglicans_, 1850

Paul Harvey News

If there is a 50-50 chance that something can go wrong, then 9 times out of ten it will.... Paul Harvey News, 1979

Donna Newton

North American is tilted in such a way that everything loose slides to Southern California. --Donna Newton

I have resigned from the planning committee and am on the welcoming committee.- Donna Newton on fellowship with those who have differing views on the return of Christ.

When God initiated the plan of redemption, He didn't set out to make fallen people better. His design was to make them new. - Donna Newton

There is no carbon paper between the pages of life. Each day is new and God's mercies are freely available. How thankful I am that I don't have to make up for lost time with God. We live in a world where our days are packed with appointments and responsibilities. People and institutions often require the "make-up work," but relationship with God begins fresh each day -Donna Newton

Howard W. Newton

The thoughtless are rarely wordless.... Howard W. Newton

Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

Trials are medicines which our gracious and wise Physician prescribes because we need them; and he proportions the frequency and weight of them to what the case requires. Let us trust his skill and thank him for his prescription. -- Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

In the absence of any other proof, the thumb would convince me of God's existence. ... Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
Isaac Newton, letter to Robert Hooke, 5 February 1675. It is attributed by John of Salisbury [d.1180] in his book 'Metalogicon' [III, lv, 900a] to Bernard of Chartres who said that we were quasi nanos gigantium humeris insidentes, ut possimus plura eis et remotiora videre [like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so as to be able to see more and further than them].

If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent.-- Isaac Newton

I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. -- Sir Isaac Newton

John Newton

Afflictions make them love the word,
Stir up their hearts to prayer;
And many precious proofs afford,
Of their Redeemer's care.
John Newton , SAMPSON's lion. Olnety Hymn No 24.

Tis past&emdash;the dreadful stormy night
Is gone, with all its fears!
And now I see returning light,
The Lord, my Sun, appears.
John Newton (Olney Hymns 3:21, stanza 1)

It is necessary that our sharpest trials should sometimes spring from our dearest comforts, else we should be in danger of forgetting ourselves and setting up our rest here. - John Newton letter 21 Dec 1776

You have need of patience; and if you ask, the Lord will give it: but there can be no settled peace till our will is in a measure subdued. Hide yourself under the shadow of His wings; rely upon His care and power; look upon Him as a physician who has graciously undertaken to heal your soul of the worst of sicknesses, sin. Yield to His prescriptions, and fight against every thought that would represent it as desirable to be permitted to choose for yourself.- JOHN NEWTON

I am persuaded that love and humility are the highest attainments in the school of Christ and the brightest evidences that he is indeed our Master. ... John Newton (1725-1807)

God often takes a course for accomplishing His purposes directly contrary to what our narrow views would prescribe. He brings a death upon our feelings, wishes, and prospects when He is about to give us the desire of our hearts. -- John Newton (1725-1807)

He knows our sorrows, not merely as He knows all things, but as one who has been in our situation, and who, though without sin Himself, endured when upon earth inexpressibly more for us than He will ever lay upon us. -- JOHN NEWTON

God's people have no assurances that the dark experiences of life will be held at bay, much less that God will provide some sort of running commentary on the meaning of each day's allotment of confusion, boredom, pain, or achievement. It is no great matter where we are, provided we see that the Lord has placed us there, and that He is with us. -- John Newton

I compare the troubles which we have to undergo in the course of the year to a great bundle of faggots, far too large for us to lift. But God does not require us to carry the whole at once. He mercifully unties the bundle, and gives us first one stick, which we are to carry today, and then another, which we are to carry tomorrow, and so on. This we might easily manage, if we would only take the burden appointed for each day; but we choose to increase our troubles by carrying yesterday's stick over again today, and adding tomorrow's burden to the load, before we are required to bear it. -- John Newton (1725-1807)

Assurance grows by repeated conflict, by our repeated experimental proof of the Lord's power and goodness to save; when we have been brought very low and helped, sorely wounded and healed, cast down and raised again, have given up all hope, and been suddenly snatched from danger, and placed in safety; and when these things have been repeated to us and in us a thousand times over, we begin to learn to trust simply to the word and power of God, beyond and against appearances: and this trust, when habitual and strong, bears the name of assurance; for even assurance has degrees.
JOHN NEWTON Taken from one of his Letters.

I measure ministers by square measure. I have no idea of the size of a table, if you only tell me how long it is: but if you also say how wide, I can tell its dimensions. So, when you tell me what a man is in the pulpit, you must also tell me what he is out of it, or I shall not know his size -- JOHN NEWTON

This is faith: a renouncing of everything we are apt to call our own and relying wholly upon the blood, righteousness and intercession of Jesus. John Newton

I think there is a scriptural distinction between faith and feeling, grace and comfort....The degree of the one is not often the just measure of the other.
John Newton ,letter 16.4.1772

My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things, that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour. John Newton

Newton's tombstone reads, "John Newton,Clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long laboured to destroy.

Our righteousness is in Him, and our hope depends, not upon the exercise of grace in us, but upon the fullness of grace and love in Him, and upon His obedience unto death. -- John Newton 1725-1807

Too often, dear Saviour, have I
Preferred some poor trifle to thee;
How is it thou dost not deny
The blessing and birth-right to me?
No better than Esau I am,
Though pardon and heav'n be mine;
To me belongs nothing but shame,
The praise and the glory be thine.
John Newton , Olney Hymn 8, ESAU

A soul may be in as thriving a state when thirsting, seeking and mourning after the Lord as when actually rejoicing in Him; as much in earnest when fighting in the valley as when singing upon the mount. John Newton

From Sinai we have heard thee speak,
And from mount Calv'ry too;
And yet to idols oft we seek,
While thou art in our view

Some golden calf, or golden dream,
Some fancied creature-good,
Presumes to share the heart with him,
Who bought the whole with blood.

LORD, save us from our golden calves,
Our sin with grief we own;
We would no more be thine by halves,
But live to thee alone.
John Newton. Olney Hymns 18, The golden calf.

I can hardly recollect a single plan of mine, of which I have not since seen reason to be satisfied, that had it taken place in season and circumstance just as I proposed, it would, humanly speaking, have proved my ruin; or at least it would have deprived me of the greater good the Lord had designed for me. We judge of things by their present appearances, but the Lord sees them in their consequences, if we could do so likewise we should be perfectly of His mind; but as we cannot, it is an unspeakable mercy that He will manage for us, whether we are pleased with His management or not; and it is spoken of as one of his heaviest judgments, when He gives any person or people up to the way of their own hearts, and to walk after their own counsels. John Newton

If two angels were to receive at the same moment a commission from God, one to go down and rule earth's grandest empire, the other to go and sweep the streets of its meanest village, it would be a matter of entire indifference to each which service fell to his lot, the post of ruler or the post of scavenger; for the joy of the angels lies only in obedience to God's will, and with equal joy they would lift a Lazarus in his rags to Abraham's bosom, or be a chariot of fire to carry an Elijah home.
John Newton

How great and honorable is the privilege of a true believer! That he has neither wisdom nor strength in himself is no disadvantage, for he is connected with infinite wisdom and almighty power. John Newton, letter: 23.2.1775

"What Thou wilt, when Thou wilt, how Thou wilt." I had rather speak these three sentences from my heart in my mother tongue than be master of all the languages in Europe.-- John Newton, letter: 23. 4.1779

God often takes a course for accomplishing His purposes directly contrary to what our narrow views would prescribe. He brings a death upon our feelings, wishes and prospects when He is about to give us the desire of our hearts.John Newton

We serve a gracious Master who knows how to overrule even our mistakes to His glory and our own advantage. JOHN NEWTON

Though troubles assail
And dangers affright,
Though friends should all fail
And foes all unite;
Yet one thing secures us,
Whatever betide,
The scripture assures us,
The Lord will provide.

The birds without barn
Or storehouse are fed,
From them let us learn
To trust for our bread:
His saints, what is fitting,
Shall ne'er he denied,
So long as 'tis written,
The Lord will provide.

We may, like the ships,
By tempest be tossed
On perilous deeps,
But cannot be lost.
Though Satan enrages
The wind and the tide,
The promise engages,
The Lord will provide.

His call we obey
Like Abram of old,
Not knowing our way,
But faith makes us bold;
For though we are strangers
We have a good Guide,
And trust in all dangers,
The Lord will provide.

When Satan appears
To stop up our path,
And fill us with fears,
We triumph by faith;
He cannot take from us,
Though oft he has tried,
This heart-cheering promise,
The Lord will provide.

He tells us we're weak,
Our hope is in vain,
The good that we seek
We ne'er shall obtain,
But when such suggestions
Our spirits have plied,
This answers all questions,
The Lord will provide.

No strength of our own,
Or goodness we claim,
Yet since we have known
The Saviour's great name;
In this our strong tower
For safety we hide,
The Lord is our power,
The Lord will provide.

When life sinks apace
And death is in view,
This word of his grace
Shall comfort us through:
No fearing or doubting
With Christ on our side,
We hope to die shouting,
The Lord will provide.
John Newton, Olney Hymn , The LORD will provide.

More of thy presence, Lord, impart
More of thine image let me bear;
Erect thy throne within my heart,
And reign without a rival there.

Give me to read my pardon sealed,
And from thy joy to draw my strength;
FTo have thy boundless love revealed
In all its height, and breadth, and length.

Grant these requests, I ask no more
But to thy care the rest resign;
Sick or in health, or rich or poor,
All shall be well if thou art mine.
John Newton , Olney Hymn 32, Ask what I shall give thee

I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be. But still, I am not what I used to be. And by the grace of God, I am what I am. John Newton (1725-1807)

Alas! Elisha's servant cried,
When he the Syrian army spied,
But he was soon released from care,
In answer to the prophet's prayer.

Straitway he saw, with other eyes,
A greater army from the skies;
A fiery guard around the hill,
Thus are the saints preserved still.

When Satan and his host appear,
Like him of old, I faint and fear;
Like him, by faith, with joy I see,
A greater host engaged for me.

The saints espouse my cause by prayer,
The angels make my soul their care;
Mine is the promise sealed with blood,
And Jesus lives to make it good.
John Newton ., More with us than with them , Olney Hymn 40

Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, hut now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believed!

Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
'Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

The LORD has promised good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But GOD, who called me here below,
Will be for ever mine.
John Newton , Olney Hymn 41, Faith's review and expectation.

The Lord afflicts us at times; but it is always a thousand times less than we deserve, and much less than many of our fellow-creatures are suffering around us. Let us therefore pray for grace to be humble, thankful, and patient.... John Newton (1725-1807)

The love I bear Christ is but a faint and feeble spark, but it is an emanation from himself: He kindled it and he keeps it alive; and because it is his work, I trust many waters shall not quench it.... John Newton (1725-1807)

When everything we receive from him is received and prized as fruit and pledge of his covenant love, then his bounties, instead of being set up as rivals and idols to draw our heart from him, awaken us to fresh exercises of gratitude and furnish us with fresh motives of cheerful obedience every hour.-- John Newton

Ben Nicholas

Most of life is routine - dull and grubby, but routine is the momentum that keeps a man going. If you wait for inspiration you'll be standing on the corner after the parade is a mile down the street.--- Ben Nicholas

David Nicholas

God's promises are like the stars; the darker the night the brighter they shine. David Nicholas

Q Nicholas

ROLL OF HONOUR
When, of a Sunda, Ah sits i mi pew,
Ah sees a list o lads at yance Ah knew,
An then it ardlins seems a day sin last
Ah spooak tiv em, though monny yeears es passed.

There's Dick at war a champion wi t'ploo,
Ti set a rig an furrow straight an true,
An Ben at snickled monny a fine fat hare,
E'll nivver trouble t'keepers onny mair!

'Arry, that oor Sarah used ti cooart,
An Bob at war a dab at ivvry spooart,
When Ah war young, Ah palled on wiv em all,
Bud noo they're nobbut neeams upon t'choch wall.
Q Nicholas An East Yorkshire Anthology

Reinhold Niebuhr (1892 &endash; 1971)

A scientific humanism frequently offends the dignity of man, which it ostensibly extols, by regarding human beings as subject to manipulation and as mere instruments of some "socially approved" ends.-- Reinhold Niebuhr, _Christian Realism and Political Problems_, 1953

The cross symbolises a cosmic as well as historic truth. Love conquers the world, but its victory is not an easy one. The old does not give way to the new without trying to overcome it. Reinhold Niebuhr

All human sin seems so much worse in its consequences than in its intentions.-- Reinhold Niebuhr

If we can find God only as he is revealed in nature we have no moral God. --Reinhold Niebuhr, _Christian Century_, April 22, 1926

Nothing that is worth anything can be achieved in a lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope.Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) Gilbert, in "The Critic as Artist," pt. 1; in "Intentions," 1891.

Original sin is that thing about man which makes him capable of conceiving of his own perfection and incapable of achieving it.-Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) Obituary in "Newsweek," 14 Jun 1972.

God, give us the serenity to accept what cannot be changed; Give us courage to change what should be changed; Give us the wisdom to distinguish one from the other.Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971): "The Serenity Prayer," 1934.

Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.~ Reinhold Niebuhr, Children of Light and Children of Darkness (1944)

Friedrich Nietzsche

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you. -- Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil_ (1885-86)

Sensuality often makes love grow too quickly, so that the root remains weak and is easy to pull out. --Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) _Beyond Good and Evil_ [1886], "Maxims and Interludes," No. 120

The thought of suicide is a powerful solace: by means of it one gets through many a bad night. --Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) _Beyond Good and Evil_ [1886], "Maxims and Interludes," No. 157

There are no facts, only interpretations.... Frederick Wilhelm Nietzsche, (1844-1900)

In revenge and in love, woman is more barbarous than man.--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)_Beyond Good and Evil_ [1886], "Maxims and Interludes," No. 139

The sexes deceive themselves about one another: the reason being that fundamentally they love and honor only themselves (or their own ideal, to express it more pleasantly). Thus man wants women to be peaceful--but woman is essentially unpeaceful, like the cat, however well she may have trained herself to present an appearance of peace. --Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) _Beyond Good and Evil_ [1886], "Maxims and Interludes," No. 131

What does not kill me makes me stronger. - - "Twilight of the Idols" by Friedrich Nietzsche

To take upon oneself not punishment, but guilt - that alone would be godlike. Nietzsche

When entering into a marriage one ought to ask oneself: do you believe you are going to enjoy talking with this woman up into your old age? Everything else in marriage is transitory, but most of the time you are together will be devoted to conversation. Friedrich Nietzsche

Like tourists huffing and puffing to reach the peak we forget the view on the way up-- Nietzsche

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. -Friedrich Nietzsche

The most common sort of lie is the one uttered to one's self. --Nietzsche

Florence Nightingale (1820-1910

Life is a hard fight, a struggle, a wrestling with the principle of evil, hand to hand, foot to foot. Every inch of the way is disputed. The night is given us to take breath, to pray, to drink deep at the fountain of power. The day, to use the strength which has been given us, to go forth to work with it till the evening. --Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)

Were there none who were discontented with what they have, the world would never reach anything better. -Florence Nightingale (1820 &endash; 1910)

Why is there not national like individual progression? Does it not seem as if the greatest amount of progress would be secured by the *same* nation continuing to carry its own on, and profiting by its own experience? It cannot be a law that all nations shall fall after a certain number of years. God does not work in that sort of way: they must have broken some law of nature which has caused them to fall. But are all nations to sink in that way? As if national soil, like the soil of the earth, must lie fallow after a certain number of crops. And will England turn into Picts again, after a certain number of harvest years, as Egypt has turned into Arabs? Or will a nation find out at last the laws of God by which she may make a steady progression? -- Florence Nightingale, 1850

Anais Nin (1903 &endash; 1977)

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that this new world is born. Anais Nin

Memory is a great betrayer. --Anais Nin (1903-1977)_The Diary of Anais Nin_, Volume V [1974], "Letter to Geismar" 16 Jan

We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.- Anais Nin (1903 &endash; 1977)

Kitaro Nishida

If my heart can become pure and simple like that of a child, I think there probably can be no greater happiness than this.- Kitaro Nishida

Larry Niven

Anything that can go wrong, will -Larry Niven ,Finagle's Law of Dynamic Negatives,

Richard M Nixon (1913-1994)

Defeat doesn't finish a man --quit does. A man is not finished when he's defeated. He's finished when he quits. Richard Nixon (1913-1994)

I was under medication when I made the decision not to burn the tapes. -Richard Nixon, U.S. President

I reject the cynical view that politics is inevitably, or even usually, a dirty business. ~ Richard M. Nixon (August 1973)

People in the media say they must look at the president with a microscope. Now, I don‚t mind a microscope, but boy, when they use a proctoscope, that‚s going too far.-- Richard Nixon ATTRIBUTION: NBC TV 8 Apr '84

We must never forget that if the war in Vietnam is lost ... the right of free speech will be extinguished throughout the world. -- Richard M. Nixon 10 November 1965

Let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth, to see it like it is and to tell it like it is, to find the truth, to speak the truth and live with the truth. That's what we'll do.-- Richard M Nixon , Nomination acceptance speech, Miami, 8 Aug 1968, 1968

I let down my friends, I let down my country. I let down our system of government.
Richard M Nixon , The Observer, `Sayings of the Week', 8 May 1977, 1977

As a reporter, I interviewed, traveled with, reported on, and deplored Richard Nixon's actions for much of his career. As a columnist, I frequently criticized his presidency. Later, after his political career was ended, I studied Nixon and his record, talked to his friends and enemies, reviewed my own words and memories, and concluded that he was neither evil nor a victim, except of himself--and we're all that kind of victim. - Tom Wicker _Character Above All_

Yes, the president should resign. He has lied to the American people, time and time again, and betrayed their trust. He is no longer an effective leader. Since he has admitted guilt, there is no reason to put the American people through an impeachment. He will serve absolutely no purpose in finishing out his term; the only possible solution is for the president to save some dignity and resign. --Bill Clinton regarding Richard Nixon, 1974

Albert J. Nock

Thus the State turns every contingency into a resource for accumulating power in itself, always at the expense of social power; and with this it develops a habit of acquiescence in the people. New generations appear, each temperamentally adjusted &endash; or as I believe our American glossary now has it, 'conditioned' - to new increments of State power, and they tend to take the process of continuous accumulation as quite in order. All the State's institutional voices unite in confirming this tendency; they unite in exhibiting the progressive conversion of social power into State power as something not only quite in order, but even as wholesome and necessary for the public good." --Albert J. Nock, _Our Enemy the State_ (1935)

Peggy Noonan

All defeat is a collaboration. --Peggy Noonan. What I Saw at the Revolution, p. 294

Jay Nordlinger

You might accuse me of having to politicize everything, but, in my hometown, soccer was very definitely a project of the Left.....It was sort of the athletic equivalent of vegetarianism.-- Jay Nordlinger

Donald L. Norbie

For many years the Christians met in homes and never possessed any special buildings for their gatherings. As religio illicita, no thought could be had of a permanent structure for gatherings. This would only facilitate matters for the Roman government in its merciless persecutions. The early Church was very conscious of its pilgrim character in a world which was at enmity with God. ... Donald L. Norbie, New Testament Church Organization

Gary North

Modern [Secular] warfare has become total, sparing almost no one and few institutions. In World War II, more civilians were killed than combatants. The saturation bombing of civilians was standard operating policy by the Germans and the Allies, culminating in the senseless bombing of Dresden in 1945, a German city with no military targets, where at least 135,000 civilians, and possibly a quarter million, perished in huge fire storms that were created when almost 2,000 bombers dropped 650,000 incendiary bombs on a defenseless city swollen with refugees from the east. Gary North, "The Demographics of Decline," Moses and Pharaoh, Institute for Christian Economics, 1985, p. 359.

That is really where the rub is. The critics &endash; sometimes Jews and always liberals &endash; just don't like the New Testament. They resent this movie with the same intensity that Canaanites would have resented a movie about Joshua. I am tempted to write a satirical movie review along these lines. "Mr. Gibson's handling of traditional Canaanite religious beliefs is grossly insensitive. And, when he creates scene after scene based on Deuteronomy 7:16, he violates artistic propriety." - Gary North , Did Jesus Get Lost in Translation?, http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north251.html

He had a decade to repent. He refused. He stood before the cameras this week, displaying the familiar grin that had been published in newspapers and magazines across the nation a decade ago.
We have recently seen this same grin on the face of Amorzi bin Nurhasyim, the "smiling bomber" who helped kill 202 people in the bombing of a hotel in Bali, Indonesia. Praising Allah throughout his trial and at his conviction, he brought disrepute on Islam. His grin never changed. Neither did Hill's.
On seeing Amorzi bin Nurhasyim's grin and his thumbs-up sign after the court declared his death sentence, viewers correctly concluded: "Fanatical nut-case zealot." This is exactly the response a decade ago when they saw the same response by Hill. It was the correct response. So were the official declarations: "Guilty as charged."
Christian fundamentalists look at Amorzi bin Nurhasyim and conclude, "Islamic zealot. Good riddance." Then they look at Paul Hill and conclude, "Poor misguided man. May God be merciful to him." I call this approach selective judgment. It is at the heart of antinomianism: mercy without repentance.
What outraged the pro-abortionists was that Hill had adopted their strategy of executing the judicially unconvicted. He had put an abortionist in his sites, just as they put millions of unborn American children in theirs. For them, this was turf-invasion. They do not tolerate turf invasion.
To those who view him as a martyr, I recommend immediate repentance. Mere prudence is insufficient. Prudence may not be enough to protect these people from self-destruction. Prudence is not characteristic of the fanatic. Paul Hill was a fanatic. He was a fanatic who adopted violence as his mode of expression -- bloody violence and a grin.}|
So, here is my epitaph for Paul Hill

Paul J. Hill
He is no longer grinning.
Gary North

Socialism is simply Communism for people without the testosterone to man the barricades.-- Gary North

Lord Northcliffe

Journalism: A profession whose business it is to explain to others what it personally does not understand. -- Lord Northcliff

Michael Novak

The Christian church is not only a community of future hope but also a community of remembrnce.Every period of renewal begins with a deeper penetration of the past, to recapture the faith of our fathers--Michael Novak

To know oneself is to disbelieve utopia. MICHAEL NOVAK

Communist atheism denies any transcendent dimension to being,any call to which humans must freely respond, any standard of truth, evidence, moral integrity, and goodness by which humans are every moment being judged. For the Communist, all is nothingness except the Dialectic of History, before which and in whose name he prostrates himself. The Communist borrows from Christianity and Judaism a comfort, viz. that his prostration places him on the side of justice and compassion. Yet his comfort is unwarranted because it rests on ideas in which his premises forbid him to believe. For the Communist has only one moral principle: the Collective Will of the Party. All else can be done in that name: murder, torture, imprison, exterminate, assassinate. No other moral question can be scientifically raised. There is in man no internal source of dignity. Personal liberty and personal responsibility cannot be honored in theory, although of course they continued to live on among individuals. In theory, these realities are dismissed as bourgeois affectations. The Communist's moral comforts are stolen from elsewhere.
Michael Novak, "The Godlessness That Failed", _First Things_, June/July, 2000

In America, however, most of our atheists are actually thinly disguised Christians, or sometimes thinly disguised Jews, who want to retain the humanism taught by the Creator, without believing in the Creator. They believe in the image of God, without believing in God. They want the Kingdom of God &emdash; the Kingdom of compassion, justice, peace, love, integrity, honesty, and commitment &emdash; without God, the King. -- Michael Novak, "The Atheist Civil-Liberty Union?"

One must feel sorry for atheists. They seem so lonely. Alone not only under the vast stars of a summer's night, in all this immense cosmos. And passing through it as we do all, as evanescently as fireflies. But alone also in this religion-drenched country, most of whose public spaces reek of faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. -- Michael Novak, "The Atheist Civil-Liberty Union?"

Atheists in our midst are proof that all consciences can be accommodated here, even those that have no ground for holding that conscience is sacred, inalienable, and prior to civil society. --Michael Novak, "The Atheist Civil-Liberty Union?"

And what will happen to our own civilization, when the full atheistic agenda of the ACLU has finally and completely been accomplished? When there is no one who can speak publicly, under government auspices, about the ground of our rights? When no public symbols or ceremonies remind the young of these sacred sources, from whose depths alone spring their special nobility and unique calling? When the United States of America has thoroughly abandoned in public the faith of our forebears, and only the desolate winds of atheism blow across our monuments? When our rights are reduced to those of a barnyard? Poor ACLU. No more than the Jacobins of France in 1789 do they know what they do. Michael Novak, "The Atheist Civil-Liberty Union?"

Robert Nozick

Taxation of earnings from labor is on a par with forced labor. Some persons find this claim obviously true: taking the earnings of N hours labor is like taking N hours from the person; it is like forcing the person to work N hours for another's purpose. Others find the claim absurd. But even these, IF they object to forced labor, would oppose forcing unemployed hippies to work for the benefit of the needy. And they would also object to forcing each person to work five extra hours each week for the benefit of the needy. But a system that takes five hours' wages in taxes does not seem to them like one that forces someone to work five hours .... -- Robert Nozick, ANARCHY, STATE, UTOPIA (p.169)

Last Modified 27/5/05

Graham Weeks

Last Modified: 3/7/05