John Newton Quotes

John Newton was an Anglican clergyman in England and the founder of the evangelical Clapham Sect. He started as an English sailor, in the Royal Navy for a period, and later a captain of slave ships. He became ordained as an evangelical Anglican cleric, served Olney, Buckinghamshire for two decades, and also wrote hymns, known for "Amazing Grace" and "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken".

Newton started his career at sea at a young age, and worked on slave ships in the slave trade for several years. After experiencing a period of Christian conversion Newton eventually renounced his trade and became a prominent supporter of abolitionism, living to see Britain's abolition of the African slave trade in 1807.

✵ 24. July 1725 – 21. December 1807   •   Other names জন নিউটন, جون نيوتن
John Newton photo

Works

Olney Hymns
Olney Hymns
John Newton
John Newton: 24   quotes 12   likes

Famous John Newton Quotes

“I am not what I ought to be — ah, how imperfect and deficient! I am not what I wish to be — I abhor what is evil, and I would cleave to what is good! I am not what I hope to be — soon, soon shall I put off mortality, and with mortality all sin and imperfection. Yet, though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be, I can truly say, I am not what I once was; a slave to sin and Satan; and I can heartily join with the apostle, and acknowledge, "By the grace of God I am what I am."”

As quoted in The Christian Pioneer (1856) edited by Joseph Foulkes Winks, p. 84. Also in The Christian Spectator, vol. 3 (1821), p. 186 http://books.google.com/books?id=mv4oAAAAYAAJ&dq=ah%2C%20how%20imperfect%20and%20deficient!%20I%20am%20not%20what%20I%20wish%20to%20be&pg=PA186#v=onepage&q=ah,%20how%20imperfect%20and%20deficient!%20I%20am%20not%20what%20I%20wish%20to%20be&f=false
Often paraphrased as I am not the man I ought to be, I am not the man I wish to be, and I am not the man I hope to be, but by the grace of God, I am not the man I used to be."'

“God sometimes does His work with gentle drizzle, not storms.”

Source: Amazing Grace

“Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That sav'd a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.”

Variant: Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
Source: Olney Hymns (1779), Amazing Grace

John Newton Quotes about God

“When we've been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we'd first begun.”

These lines were not written by Newton. They have often been accreted to various hymns, including "Amazing Grace", since the mid-nineteenth century.
Misattributed

John Newton Quotes

“Thou art coming to a King, large petitions with thee bring, for His grace and power are such none can ever ask too much.”

Variant: Thou art coming to a King,
large petitions with thee bring,
for His grace and pow'r are such
none can ever ask too much.

“Whether men are pleased or not, we will, we must, worship the Lamb that was slain.”

The Works of the Rev. John Newton http://books.google.com.mx/books?id=ejYIv91QlGUC&pg=PA382&lpg=PA382&dq=newton+we+must+worship+the+lamb&source=bl&ots=zNMOTpAZ3y&sig=llNL3C_qLM50GDCA9RkmkZDWuYs&hl=es-419&sa=X&ei=__KXUsexDZXeoAScnoLgBg&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=newton%20we%20must%20worship%20the%20lamb&f=false, Vol. 2, p. 382.

“Show me what I have to do,
Every hour my strength renew;
Let me live a life of faith,
Let me die Thy people's death.”

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 266.

“If the trade is at present carried on to the same extent and nearly in the same manner, while we are delaying from year to year to put a stop to our part in it, the blood of many thousands of our helpless, much injured fellow creatures is crying against us.”

The pitiable state of the survivors who are torn from their relatives, connections, and their native land must be taken into account. I fear the African trade is a national sin, for the enormities which accompany it are now generally known; and though, perhaps, the greater part of the nation would be pleased if it were suppressed, yet, as it does not immediately affect their own interest, they are passive. {...] Can we wonder that the calamities of the present war begin to be felt at home, when we ourselves wilfully and deliberately inflict much greater calamities upon the native Africans, who never offended us?. "Woe unto thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled"
Alluding to the biblical verse in Isaiah 33:1. As quoted in The Works of the Rev. John Newton... to which are Prefixed Memoirs of His Life (1839), Vol. 2, U. Hunt., page 438.

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