Saint Augustine Quotes
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The verdict of the world is conclusive.
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Love can be angry... with a kind of anger in which there is no gall, like the dove's and not the ravens.
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Passion is the evil in adultery. If a man has no opportunity of living with another man's wife, but if it is obvious for some reason that he would like to do so, and would do so if he could, he is no less guilty than if he was caught in the act.
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He that is kind is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king.
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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.
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The words printed here are concepts. You must go through the experiences.
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If I am given a formula, and I am ignorant of its meaning, it cannot teach me anything, but if I already know it what does the formula teach me?
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Repentant tears wash out the stain of guilt.
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Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.
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The spiritual virtue of a sacrament is like light; although it passes among the impure, it is not polluted.
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If two friends ask you to judge a dispute, don't accept, because you will lose one friend; on the other hand, if two strangers come with the same request, accept because you will gain one friend.
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It seems to me that an unjust law is no law at all.
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We make a ladder for ourselves of our vices, if we trample those same vices underfoot.
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Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.
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To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.
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Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.
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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.
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Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance.
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Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.
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The desire is thy prayers; and if thy desire is without ceasing, thy prayer will also be without ceasing. The continuance of your longing is the continuance of your prayer.
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The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works.
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Thou must be emptied of that wherewith thou art full, that thou mayest be filled with that whereof thou art empty.
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What grace is meant to do is to help good people, not to escape their sufferings, but to bear them with a stout heart, with a fortitude that finds its strength in faith.
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God does not give heed to the ambitiousness of our prayers, because he is always ready to give to us his light, not a visible light but an intellectual and spiritual one; but we are not always ready to receive it when we turn aside and down to other things out of a desire for temporal things.