Ambrose Quotes

#1. True repentance is to cease from sin.

Ambrose

#2. He who reads much and understands much, receives his fill. He who is full, refreshes others.

Ambrose

#3. The world has been created for everyone's use, but you few rich are trying to keep it up for yourselves. For not merely the possession of the earth, but the very sky, the air, and the sea are claimed for the use of the rich few ... The earth belongs to all, not just to the rich.

Ambrose

#4. Love is like a shadow, one can only catch it by falling into it.

Ambrose

#5. The likeness of Your Church, O Lord, is that woman who went behind and touched the hem of Your garment, saying within herself: 'If I do but touch His garment I shall be whole' (Mt. 9:21). So the Church confesses her wounds, but desires to be healed.

Ambrose

#6. Our own evil inclinations are far more dangerous than any external enemies.

Ambrose

#7. The rich man who gives to the poor does not bestow alms but pays a debt.

Ambrose

#8. Except a man fear the Lord, he is unable to renounce sin.

Ambrose

#9. How far, O rich, do you extend your senseless avarice? Do you intend to be the sole inhabitants of the earth? Why do you drive out the fellow sharers of nature, and claim it all for yourselves? The earth was made for all, rich and poor, in common. Why do you rich claim it as your exclusive right?

Ambrose

#10. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

Ambrose

#11. But if these beings guard you, they do so because they have been summoned by your prayers.

Ambrose

#12. Law is twofold
natural and written. The natural law is in the heart, the written law on tables. All men are under the natural law.

Ambrose

#13. The devil's snare does not catch you, unless you are first caught by the devil's bait.

Ambrose

#14. We do not innovate anything ... How is it that novelties are introduced which were never even thought of by our predecessors?

Ambrose

#15. May each one of us glorify the Lord with the soul of Mary and rejoice in God with the spirit of Mary

Ambrose

#16. To be content, to find true love, is what essentially drives us all, but if found, would it be recognized?

Ambrose

#17. It is Peter himself that He says, 'You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.' Where Peter is, there is the Church. And where the Church, no death is there, but life eternal.

Ambrose

#18. The Lord was Baptized, not to be cleansed Himself, but to cleanse the waters, so that those waters, cleansed by the flesh of Christ which knew no sin, might have the power of Baptism.

Ambrose

#19. The Psalms are the voices of the church.

Ambrose

#20. The Church's foundation is unshakable and firm against the assaults of the raging sea. Waves lash at the Church but do not shatter it. Although the elements of this world constantly batter and crash against her, she offers the safest harbor of salvation for all in distress.

Ambrose

#21. And let them remember that prayer should accompany the reading of Sacred Scripture, so that God and man may talk together; for "we speak to Him when we pray; we hear Him when we read the divine saying."

Ambrose

#22. The devil tempts that he may ruin; God tests that he may crown.

Ambrose

#23. Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. No one is excepted, not [even] the infant.

Ambrose

#24. For how can we adopt those things which we do not find in the holy Scriptures?

Ambrose

#25. Let your door stand open to receive Him, unlock your soul to Him, offer Him a welcome in your mind, and then you will see the riches of simplicity, the treasures of peace, the joy of grace. Throw wide the gate of your heart, stand before the sun of the everlasting light ...

Ambrose

#26. If every time the blood is poured out it is poured out for the remission of sins, I ought to receive it always, that my sins may always be forgiven me.

Ambrose

#27. The rich women, to avoid dividing the inheritance among many, kill their own fetus in the womb and with murderous juices extinguish in the genital chamber their children.

Ambrose

#28. Accordingly, death is a harbor of peace for the just, but is believed a shipwreck for the wicked.

Ambrose

#29. When in Rome, live in the Roman way.

Ambrose

#30. When I am at Rome I fast as the Romans do; when I am at Milan I do not fast. So likewise you, whatever church you come to, observe the custom of the place, if you would neither give offence to others, nor take offence from them.

Ambrose

#31. As in paradise, God walks in the Holy Scriptures, seeking man.

Ambrose

#32. Prayer is the wing wherewith the soul flies to heaven, and meditation the eye wherewith we see God.

Ambrose

#33. The prime objective of all Initiatory music in the Temples of Antiquity was to bring about physical purification and renewal, mental stimulation and alertness, spiritual exhilaration and Illumination.

Ambrose

#34. Dice have their laws, which the courts of justice cannot undo.

Ambrose

#35. If you do not give the tenth part to God, he will take the nine parts.

Ambrose

#36. Just as riches are an impediment to virtue in the wicked, so in the good they are an aid of virtue.

Ambrose

#37. The emperor is in the Church, not about the Church.

Ambrose

#38. The body should be bedecked naturally and without affectation, with simplicity, with neglect rather than nicety, not with costly and dazzling apparel, but with ordinary clothes, so that nothing be lacking to honesty and necessity, yet nothing be added to increase its beauty.

Ambrose

#39. If it is "daily bread," why do you take it once a year? ... Take daily what is to profit you daily. Live in such a way that you may deserve to receive it daily. He who does not deserve to receive it daily, does not deserve to receive it once a year.

Ambrose

#40. When you are at Rome, live as Romans live.

Ambrose

#41. As a servant desireth the approval of his master, and a son the approval of his father, so should we desire the approval of God and our own conscience.

Ambrose

#42. It was not by dialectic that it pleased God to save His people.

Ambrose

#43. It is not the ambassador, it is not the messenger, but the Lord Himself that saveth His people. The Lord remaineth alone, for no man can be partner with God in forgiving sins; this office belongs solely to Christ, who taketh away the sins of the world.

Ambrose

#44. It is easier to look wise than to talk wisely.

Ambrose

#45. Neither angel, nor archangel, nor yet even the Lord Himself (who alone can say "I am with you"), can, when we have sinned, release us, unless we bring repentance with us.

Ambrose

#46. Prelate, n. A church officer having a superior degree of holiness and a fat preferment. One of Heaven's aristocracy. A gentleman of God.

Ambrose

#47. We should pray to the angels, for they are given to us as guardians.

Ambrose

#48. As the print of the seal on the wax is the express image of the seal itself, so Christ is the express image - the perfect representation of God.

Ambrose

#49. What is impossible to God? Not that which is difficult to His power, but that which is contrary to His nature.

Ambrose

#50. There is no time of life past learning something.

Ambrose