When God is our strength, it is strength indeed; when our strength is our own, it is only weakness.
Saint AugustineBecause I do it with one small ship, I am called a terrorist. You do it with a whole fleet and are called an emperor.
Saint AugustineAll the dancer's gestures are signs of things, and the dance called rational, because it aptly signifies and displays something over and above the pleasure of the senses.
Saint AugustineFor God loves saving, not condemning, and therefore He is patient with bad people, in order to make good people out of bad people.
Saint AugustineFree curiosity has greater power to stimulate learning than rigorous coercion. Nevertheless, the free ranging flux of curiosity is channeled by discipline under Your Law.
Saint AugustineI held my heart back from positively accepting anything, since I was afraid of another fall, and in this condition of suspense I was being all the more killed.
Saint AugustineA man may lose the good things of this life against his will; but if he loses the eternal blessings, he does so with his own consent.
Saint AugustineIt is easy to want things from the Lord and yet not want the Lord Himself, as though the gift could ever be preferable to the Giver.
Saint AugustinePray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.
Saint AugustineOften the contempt of vainglory becomes a source of even more vainglory, for it is not being scorned when the contempt is something one is proud of.
Saint AugustineWhat does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.
Saint AugustineThe Old (Testament) is in the New (Testament) revealed, the New is in the Old concealed.
Saint AugustineIt is said that there is no salvation outside the Church. Who denies this? And therefore whatever things of the Church are had outside the Church do not avail unto salvation.
Saint AugustineO eternal truth and true love and beloved eternity! You are my God; to you I sigh by day and by night. And when I first knew you, you raised me up so that I could see that there was something to see and that I still lacked the ability to see it. And you beat back the weakness of my sight, blazing upon me with your rays, and I trembled in love and in dread.
Saint AugustineWe make ourselves a ladder out of our vices if we trample the vices themselves underfoot.
Saint AugustineWe must understand then, that even though God doesn't always give us what we want, He always gives us what we need for our salvation.
Saint AugustineWhat is reprehensible is that while leading good lives themselves and abhorring those of wicked men, some, fearing to offend, shut their eyes to evil deeds instead of condemning them and pointing out their malice.
Saint AugustineYou don't love in your enemies what they are, but what you would have them become by your prayers.
Saint AugustineFor if it is not lawful to take the law into our own hands and slay even a guilty person, whose death no public sentence has warranted. Then certainly he who kills himself is a homicide, and so much the guiltier of his own death as he was more innocent of that offence for which he doomed himself to die.
Saint AugustineDo you desire security? Here you have it. The Lord says to you, "I will never abandon you, I will always be with you." If a good man made you such a promise, you would trust him. God makes it, and do you doubt? Do you seek a support more sure than the word of God, which is infallible? Surely, He has made the promise, He has written it, He has pledged His word for it, it is most certain.
Saint AugustineIf we are perplexed by an apparent contradiction in Scripture, it is not allowable to say, 'The author of this book is mistaken'; but either the manuscript is faulty, or the translation is wrong, or you have not understood.
Saint AugustineThe same divine authority that forbids the killing of a human being establishes certain exceptions, as when God authorizes killing by a general law or when He gives an explicit commission to an individual for a limited time.
Saint AugustineGod will cleanse your sins if you yourself are dissatisfied with yourself and will keep on changing until you are perfect.
Saint AugustineAugustineThe 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 AugustineIt was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.
Saint AugustineThe one who is our very Life descended into our world, and bore our death, and slew it with the abundance of His own life. Thundering, He called out to us to return to Him in heaven.
Saint Augustine