Saint Augustine Quotes

Divine Scripture is wont to frame, as it were, allurements for children from the things which are found in the creature; whereby, according to their measure, and as it were by steps, the affections of the weak may be moved to seek those things that are above, and to leave those things that are below. But the same Scripture rarely employs those things which are spoken properly of God, and are not found in any creature; as, for instance, that which was said to Moses, I am that I am; and, I Am has sent me to you."

It is better to be cured in the Church than to be cut off from this Body as incurable ... for, as long as the member is still attached to the Body, his cure is not beyond hope, but when he has been cut off, he can neither be treated nor cured.

Why is it that we remember with difficulty and without difficulty forget? Learn with difficulty and without difficulty remain ignorant?

Believe in order to Understand and Understand in order to Believe

Should you ask me what is the first thing in religion, I should reply that the first, second, and third thing therein is humility.

God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.

God is always trying to give good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive them.

He loves Thee too little, who loves anything together with Thee, which he loves not for Thy sake.

Love is the beauty of the soul.

We can know what God is not, but we cannot know what He is.

Without God, we cannot. Without us, God will not.

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.

I had a clear idea about what time is till I was asked to explain it and ceased to understand it altogether as soon as I began explaining it.

The soul, which is spirit, can not dwell in dust; it is carried along to dwell in the blood.

Late have I loved Thee, O Lord; and behold, Thou wast within and I without, and there I sought Thee. Thou was with me when I was not with Thee. Thou didst call, and cry, and burst my deafness. Thou didst gleam, and glow, and dispell my blindness. Thou didst touch me, and I burned for Thy peace. For Thyself Thou hast made us, and restless our hearts until in Thee they find their ease. Late have I loved Thee, Thou Beauty ever old and ever new. Thou hast burst my bonds asunder; unto Thee will I offer up an offering of praise.

To abstain from sin when one can no longer sin is to be forsaken by sin, not to forsake it.

The Holy Scriptures are our letters from home.

Poetry is the Devil's wine.

Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a teardrop.

There is no health in those who are displeased by an element in Your creation, just as there was none in me when I was displeased by many things You had made. Because my soul didn't dare to say that my God displeased me, it refused to attribute to You whatever was displeasing.

Consequently, heretics and schismatics, separated from the unity of this Body, are able to receive the same Sacrament, but with no benefit to themselves; indeed, more to their own harm, in that they are judged the more severely rather than being liberated.

When [men] go to war, what they want is to impose on their enemies the victor's will and call it peace.

There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.

No man has a right to lead such a life of contemplation as to forget in his own ease the service due to his neighbor.

I was not yet in love, yet I loved to love...I sought what I might love, in love with loving.

Man has been naturally so created that it is advantageous for him to be submissive, but disastrous for him to follow his own will, and not the will of his creator.

Once for all, then, a short precept is given thee: Love, and do what thou wilt: whether thou hold thy peace, through love hold thy peace; whether thou cry out, through love cry out; whether thou correct, through love correct; whether thou spare, through love do thou spare: let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good.

Moral character is assessed not by what a man knows but by what he loves

For great are you, Lord, and you look kindly on what is humble, but the lofty-minded you regard from afar. Only to those whose hearts are crushed do you draw close. You will not let yourself be found by the proud, nor even by those who in their inquisitive skill count stars or grains of sand, or measure the expanses of heaven, or trace the paths of the planets.

This entire most beautiful order of good things is going to pass away after its measure has been exhausted; for both morning and evening were made in them.

If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.

Why persist in walking difficult and toilsome paths? There is no repose where you are seeking it. Search as you like, it is not where you are looking. You are seeking a happy life in the realm of death, and it will not be found there. How could life be happy where there is no life at all?

We made bad use of immortality, and so ended up dying; Christ made good use of mortality, so that we might end up living.

For what am I to myself without You, but a guide to my own downfall?

For where I found Truth, there found I my God, the Truth itself; which since I learnt, I have not forgotten.

Though in the order of nature angels rank above men, yet, by scale of justice, good men are of greater value than bad angels.

For, were it not good that evil things should also exist, the omnipotent God would almost certainly not allow evil to be, since beyond doubt it is just as easy for Him not to allow what He does not will, as for Him to do what He will.

Eternity is the now that does not pass away.

I believe in order to understand

Let him who desires to be harsh in making demands upon his debtors consider that he is God’s debtor.

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.

Nothing conquers except truth and the victory of truth is love.

People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering.

Give me yourself, O my God, give yourself back to me. Lo, I love you, but if my love is too mean, let me love more passionately. I cannot gauge my love, nor know how far it fails, how much more love I need for my life to set its course straight into your arms, never swerving until hidden in the covert of your face.

God has no need of your money, but the poor have. You give it to the poor, and God receives it.

Trust the past to the mercy of God, the present to His love, and the future to His providence.

Let us therefore yield ourselves and bow to the authority of the Holy Scriptures, which can neither err nor deceive.

Moreover, from the time when He said, 'Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven;' and again, 'He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it; ' no one becomes a member of Christ except it be either by baptism in Christ, or death for Christ.