Bl. Newman on the Incomparable Evil of Sin

The Catholic Church holds it better for the sun and moon to drop from heaven, for the earth to fail, and for all the many millions on it to die of starvation in extremest agony, as far as temporal affliction goes, than that one soul, I will not say, should be lost, but should commit one single venial sin, should tell one wilful untruth, or should steal one poor farthing without excuse.

Source: John Henry Newman, Apologia Pro Vita Sua: Being a History of His Religious Opinions, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1909, 272-273.