Saint Augustine Quotes
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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.
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We do not sin when we adore Christ in the Eucharist; we do sin when we do not adore Christ in the Eucharist.
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Bad times, hard times, this is what people keep saying; but let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times: Such as we are, such are the times.
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Where was my heart to flee for refuge from my heart? Whither was I to fly, where I would not follow? In what place should I not be prey to myself?
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I inquired what wickedness is, and I didn't find a substance, but a perversity of will twisted away from the highest substance - You, O God - towards inferior things, rejecting its own inner life and swelling with external matters.
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Better that I find you, God, and leave the questions unanswered, than to find the answers without finding you.
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Too late came I to love you, O Beauty both so ancient and so new! Too late came I to love you - and behold you were with me all the time . . .
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Order your soul; reduce your wants; live in charity; associate in Christian community; obey the laws; trust in Providence.
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The honors of this world, what are they but puff, and emptiness, and peril of falling?
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If by fate anyone means the will or power of God, let him keep his meaning but mend his language; for fate commonly means a necessary process which will have its way apart from the will of God and men.
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If bodies please thee, praise God on occasion of them, and turn back thy love upon their Maker; lest in these things which please thee, thou displease. If souls please thee, be they loved in God: for they too are mutable, but in Him they are firmly established.
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It 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.
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I am convinced that in all history there has never been a greater need to Pray for our Pastors than exists right now! Pastors are experiencing an unprecedented wave of attacks, stresses, challenges. obstacles. pressures.
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Though there are very many nations all over the earth, ...there are no more than two kinds of human society, which we may justly call two cities, ...one consisting of those who live according to man, the other of those who live according to God ....To the City of Man belong the enemies of God, ...so inflamed with hatred against the City of God.
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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.
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What 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.
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Fortitude is the disposition of soul which enables us to despise all inconveniences and the loss of things not in our power.
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Let us understand that God is a physician, and that suffering is a medicine for salvation, not a punishment for damnation.
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Every day my conscience makes confession relying on the hope of Your mercy as more to be trusted than its own innocence.
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We 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.
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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.
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If a parricide is more wicked than anyone who commits homicide-because he kills not merely a man but a near relative-without doubt worse still is he who kills himself, because there is none nearer to a man than himself.
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Let your old age be childlike, and your childhood like old age; that is, so that neither may your wisdom be with pride, nor your humility without wisdom.
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The peace of the celestial city is the perfectly ordered and harmonious enjoyment of God, and of one another in God. (City of God, Book 19)