Saint Augustine Quotes

Because a thing is eloquently expressed it should not be taken to be as necessarily true; nor because it is uttered with stammering lips should it be supposed false. ~ Saint Augustine

Solvitur ambulando ... it is solved by walking. ~ Saint Augustine

To touch God a little with our mind is a great blessing, to grasp him is impossible. ~ Saint Augustine

Christians have inherited from Saint Augustine and from Plato the vision of this transient world as an icon of another and changeless order. They understand the sacred as a revelation in the here and now of the eternal sense of our being. ~ Roger Scruton

The Devil invented gambling. ~ Saint Augustine

Because God has made us for Himself, our hearts are restless until they rest in Him. ~ Saint Augustine

Punishment is justice for the unjust. ~ Saint Augustine

There is no possible source of evil except good. ~ Saint Augustine

The Devil often transforms himself into an angel to tempt men, some for their instruction, some for their ruin. ~ Saint Augustine

Ninety percent of the time things turn out worse than you thought they would. The other ten percent of the time you had no right to expect that much. ~ Saint Augustine

For grace is given not because we have done good works, but in order that we may be able to do them. ~ Saint Augustine

God in his omnipotence could not give more, in His wisdom He knew not how to give more, in His riches He had not more to give, than the Eucharist. ~ Saint Augustine

Is it experimental to have been influenced by the Bible? By Saint Augustine? ~ Marguerite Young

What are kingdoms without justice? They're just gangs of bandits. ~ Saint Augustine

The tension between religion and science is an old problem. In the fourth century, Christians and scientists were deadlocked over the matter of the earth's shape. Saint Augustine, a wise man who knew the difference between the outer life and the inner life, wrote: 'What concern is it of mine whether heaven is like a sphere and the earth is enclosed by it and suspended in the middle of the universe, or whether heaven like a disk above the earth covers it over on one side? These facts would be of no avail for my salvation.' Augustine attached little importance to science and left it alone. If a reading of the Bible conflicted with a scientific view that was certain truth, he humbly admitted that he had interpreted the Bible erroneously. He could afford to be humble, for in his inmost convictions he looked upon science the way a master looks upon his pet, as a creature with intelligence but lacking in higher understanding, and something irrelevant to the search for meaning in life. ~ Ronald W. Dworkin

If you lose your soul, there is a danger of its being destroyed. Therefore, you may not love it, since you do not want it to be destroyed. But in not wanting it to be destroyed, you love it. ~ Saint Augustine

There are three ways in which sins are forgiven: in baptism, in prayer, and in the greater humility of penance; yet God does not forgive sins except to the baptized ~ Saint Augustine

The mere change of custom, even though it may be of advantage in some respects, unsettles men by reason of the novelty: therefore, if it brings no advantage, it does much harm by unprofitably disturbing the Church. ~ Saint Augustine

There never can have been, and never can be, and there never shall be any sin without pride. ~ Saint Augustine

By and by never comes. ~ Saint Augustine

Give what You command and command what You will. ~ Saint Augustine

Only He who made man makes man happy. ~ Saint Augustine

An apt and true reply was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride. "What thou meanest by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, whilst thou who dost it with a great fleet art styled emperor." ~ Saint Augustine

Two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self; the heavenly by the love of God. ~ Saint Augustine

If we did not have rational souls, we would not be able to believe. ~ Saint Augustine

Humility is first, second and third in Christianity. ~ Saint Augustine

Indifferent acts are judged by their ends sins are judged by themselves. ~ Saint Augustine

The wicked have told me of things that delight them, but not such things as your law has to tell. ~ Saint Augustine

The honors of this world, what are they but puff, and emptiness, and peril of falling? ~ Saint Augustine

As to those other things which we hold on the authority, not of Scripture, but of tradition, and which are observed throughout the whole world, it may be understood that they are held as approved and instituted either by the apostles themselves, or by plenary Councils, whose authority in the Church is most useful, e.g. the annual commemoration, by special solemnities, of the Lord's passion, resurrection, and ascension, and of the descent of the Holy Spirit from heaven, and whatever else is in like manner observed by the whole Church wherever it has been established. ~ Saint Augustine

A temptation arises: it is the wind. It disturbs you: it is the surging of the seas. This is the time to awaken Christ and let Him remind you of these words ~ Saint Augustine

Nothing so casts down the manly mind from it's height as the fondling of women and those bodily contacts which belong to the married state. ~ Saint Augustine

Wicked sons do not have the Holy Ghost in the same way as do beloved sons, and yet they do have Baptism. So, too, heretics do not have the Church as Catholics have, even though they have Baptism. ~ Saint Augustine

I was in love with loving. ~ Saint Augustine

Education is the food of youth, the delight of old age, the ornament of prosperity, the refuge and comfort of adversity, and the provocation to grace in the soul. ~ Saint Augustine

For when God said, "Let there be light, and there was light," if we are justified in understanding in this light the creation of the angels, then certainly they were created partakers of the eternal light which is the unchangeable Wisdom of God, by which all things were made, and whom we call the only-begotten Son of God. ~ Saint Augustine

Far be it from us to doubt that all number is known to Him 'Whose understanding is infinite' (Ps. 147:5). The infinity of number, though there be no numbering of infinite numbers, is yet not incomprehensible by Him Whose understanding is infinite. And thus, if everything which is comprehended is defined or made finite by the comprehension of him who knows it, then all infinity is in some ineffable way made finite to God, for it is comprehensible by His knowledge. ~ Saint Augustine

But," thought Durtal, "seeing that there are so many more things betwixt heaven and earth than are dreamed of in anybody's philosophy, why not believe in the Trinity? Why reject the divinity of Christ? It is no strain on one to admit the Credo quia absurdum of Saint Augustine and Tertullian and say that if the supernatural were comprehensible it would not be supernatural, and that precisely because it passes the faculties of man it is divine. "And - oh, ~ Joris-Karl Huysmans

I would not believe in the Gospel if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so. ~ Saint Augustine

The will is truly free, when it is not the slave of vices and sins. ~ Saint Augustine

If God is, why is there evil? But if God is not, why is there good? ~ Saint Augustine

Our bodies are shaped to bear children, and our lives are a working out of the processes of creation. All our ambitions and intelligence are beside that great elemental point. ~ Saint Augustine

The one who is good, is free even being a slave; the one who is bad remains a slave even being a king. ~ Saint Augustine

When we read a book, our most essential trait - imagination - is given the opportunity to soar. ~ Saint Augustine

The world's verdict is conclusive. ~ Saint Augustine

When people truly open their minds, and contemplate the way in which the universe is ordered and governed, they are amazed-overwhelmed by a sense of the miraculous. When people contemplate with open minds the germination of a single seed, they are equally overwhelmed-yet numerous babies are born every day, and no-one marvels. If only people opened their minds, they would see that the birth of a baby, in which a new life is created, is a greater miracle than restoring life. ~ Saint Augustine

We make a ladder for ourselves of our vices, if we trample those same vices underfoot. ~ Saint Augustine

It is not earthly riches which make us or our sons happy; for they must either be lost by us in our lifetime, or be possessed when we are dead, by whom we know not, or perhaps by whom we would not. ~ Saint Augustine

You (God) have not only commanded continence, that is, from what things we are to restrain our love, but also justice, that is, on what we are to bestow our love. ~ Saint Augustine

Give me chastity and continence, but not yet. ~ Saint Augustine

He who made thee is made in thee. He is made in thee through whom you were made ... Give milk, O mother, to him who is our food; give milk to the bread that comes down from heaven. ~ Saint Augustine

If you comprehend, it is not God. ~ Saint Augustine

Around 400 A.D., Saint Augustine, a prominent Roman bishop, described a pastor's job:
Disturbers are to be rebuked, the low-spirited to be encouraged, the infirm to be supported, objectors confuted, the treacherous guarded against, the unskilled taught, the lazy aroused, the contentious restrained, the haughty repressed, litigants pacified, the poor relieved, the oppressed liberated, the good approved, the evil borne with, and all are to be loved. ~ Augustine Of Hippo

If you should ask me what are the ways of God, I would tell you that the first is humility, the second is humility, and the third is humility. Not that there are no other precepts to give, but if humility does not preceed all that we do, our efforts are fruitless. ~ Saint Augustine

Try to acquire the virtues you believe lacking in your brothers. Then you will no longer see their defects, for you will no longer have them yourself. ~ Saint Augustine

In all trouble you should seek God. You should not set Him over against your troubles, but within them. God can only relieve your troubles if you in your anxiety cling to Him. Trouble should not really be thought of as this thing or that in particular, for our whole life on earth involves trouble; and through the troubles of our earthly pilgrimage we find God. ~ Saint Augustine

In what is necessary, unity; in what is not necessary, liberty and in all things charity. ~ Saint Augustine

Lord, teach me to know you, and to know myself. ~ Saint Augustine

That there should be some fire even after this life is not incredible, and it can be inquired into and either be discovered or left hidden whether some of the faithful may be saved, some more slowly and some more quickly in the greater or lesser degree in which they loved the good things that perish, through a certain purgatorial fire. ~ Saint Augustine

In the Catholic Church, there are many other things which most justly keep me in her bosom. The consent of peoples and nations keeps me in the Church; so does her authority, inaugurated by miracles, nourished by hope, enlarged by love, established by age. The succession of priests keeps me, beginning from the very seat of the Apostle Peter, to whom the Lord, after His resurrection, gave it in charge to feed His sheep (Jn 21:15-19), down to the present episcopate. ~ Saint Augustine

God's love is unconditional. Be sure that yours is too! ~ Saint Augustine

And how shall I call upon my God, my God and Lord, since, when I call for Him, I shall be calling Him to myself? and what room is there within me, whither my God can come into me? whither can God come into me, God who made heaven and earth? is there, indeed, O Lord my God, aught in me that can contain thee? ~ Saint Augustine

We take for granted the slow miracle whereby water in the irrigation of a vineyard becomes wine. It is only when Christ turns water into wine, in a quick motion, as it were, that we stand amazed. ~ Saint Augustine

Did my infancy succeed another age of mine that dies before it? Was it that which I spent within my mother's womb? ... And what before that life again, O God of my joy, was I anywhere or in any body? ~ Saint Augustine

God without us will not as we without God cannot. ~ Saint Augustine

Poltinus the Platonist proves by means of the blossoms and leaves that from the Supreme God, whose beauty is invisible and ineffable, Providence reaches down to the things of earth here below. He points out that these frail and mortal objects could not be endowed with a beauty so immaculate and so exquisitely wrought, did they not issue from the Divinity which endlessly prevades with its invisible and unchanging beauty all things. ~ Saint Augustine

You have found that you were more secure before you accumulated so much. See what greed has imposed on you: You have filled your house and now you fear burglars. You have hoarded money and lost sleep. See what greed has commanded you: "Do this!" And you did it. ~ Saint Augustine

Jesus took His flesh from the flesh of Mary ~ Saint Augustine

What do you possess if you possess not God? ~ Saint Augustine

The playthings of our elders are called business. ~ Saint Augustine

Why is it that man desires to be made sad, beholding doleful and tragical things, which yet himself would by no means suffer? ~ Saint Augustine

The Gods occupy the loftiest regions, men the lowest, the demons the middle region ... They have immortality of body, but passions of the mind in common with men. ~ Saint Augustine

We enjoy some gratification when our good friends die; for though their death leaves us in sorrow, we have the consolatory assurance that they are beyond the ills by which in this life even the best of people are broken down or corrupted. ~ Saint Augustine

Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation. ~ Augustine Of Hippo

Let those who think I have said too little and those who think I have said too much, forgive me; and let those who think I have said just enough thank God with me. ~ Saint Augustine

We were ensnared by the wisdom of the serpent; we are set free by the foolishness of God . ~ Saint Augustine

Love and do as you will. ~ Saint Augustine

I thought that continence was a matter of our own strength, and I knew that I had not the strength: for in my utter foolishness I did not know the word of Your Scripture that none can be continent unless You give it. ~ Saint Augustine

Nobody should ever doubt that in the washing of rebirth (Titus 3:5) absolutely all sins, from the least to the greatest, are altogether forgiven. ~ Saint Augustine

If we tread our vices under our feet, we make of them a ladder by which to rise to higher things. ~ Saint Augustine

Who would not shudder if he were given the choice of eternal death or life again as a child ? Who would not choose to die ? ~ Saint Augustine

Charity is the root of all good works. ~ Saint Augustine

AugustineThe wounds of a friend are better than the kisses of an enemy. To love with sternness is better than to deceive with gentleness ... In Luke [14:23] it is written: "Compel people to come in!" By threats of the wrath of God, the Father draws souls to his Son. ~ Saint Augustine

Better that I find you, God, and leave the questions unanswered, than to find the answers without finding you. ~ Saint Augustine

When God is our strength, it is strength indeed; when our strength is our own, it is only weakness. ~ Saint Augustine

For it is better to suffer a little want than to have too much. ~ Saint Augustine

Trials and tribulations offer us a chance to make reparation for our past faults and sins. On such occasions the Lord comes to us like a physician to heal the wounds left by our sins. Tribulation is the divine medicine. ~ Saint Augustine

That your enemies have been created is God's doing; that they hate you and wish to ruin you is their own doing. What should you say about them in your mind? "Lord be merciful to them, forgive them their sins, put the fear of God in them, change them!" You are loving in them not what they are, but what you would have them to become. ~ Saint Augustine

Remove justice, and what are kingdoms but gangs of criminals on a large scale? ... A gang is a group of men ... in which the plunder is divided according to an agreed convention. If this villainy ... acquires territory, establishes a base, captures cities and subdues people, it then openly arrogates to itself the title of kingdom. ~ Saint Augustine

I was angry at myself for my inclination to vice. I longed for the day when a state of frenzy would lead my mind to sober pasture, just as it had for Saint Augustine. I longed for the day when the love of one woman would be sacred enough to forget all the rest. ~ Roman Payne

What is more insane than to be partakers of the Sacraments of the Lord and not partakers of the words of the Lord? These men truly have to say: "In Thy Name we have eaten and drunk," and they will have to hear: "I do not know you!" (Luke 13:26-27). They eat and drink His Body and Blood in the Sacrament and do not recognize in the Gospel His members spread over the whole world, and for this reason they are not numbered among them at the Judgment. ~ Saint Augustine

By means of corporal and temporal things we may comprehend the eternal and the spiritual. ~ Saint Augustine

In all your movements, let nothing be evident that would offend the eyes of another. ~ Saint Augustine

We come to God by love and not by navigation. ~ Saint Augustine

Nothing is so much to be shunned as sex relations. ~ Saint Augustine

Custom is second nature. ~ Saint Augustine

Do you wish to be great? Then begin by being. Do you desire to construct a vast and lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humility. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation. ~ Saint Augustine

Great are those two gifts, wisdom and continence: wisdom, forsooth, whereby we are formed in the knowledge of God; continence whereby we are not conformed to this world. ~ Saint Augustine

One can't reach the Truth but trough Love. ~ Saint Augustine

Love has reasons that reason knows not. ~ Saint Augustine