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

The saying contrasts two anxieties: the common fear of death versus the deeper fear of never truly living. Read in a broadly moral and spiritual key often associated with Newman, it urges attention to the quality and purpose of life—whether one has awakened to conscience, faith, and vocation—rather than to mere longevity. The “beginning” of life implies an inner start: a decisive turning toward what gives existence meaning. The line functions as a memento mori inverted: instead of letting mortality paralyze, it presses the reader to begin living deliberately now, before time runs out.