Top 100 Saint Augustine Quotes
#1. 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.
Saint Augustine
#2. And I entered and beheld with the eye of my soul ... the Light Unchangeable ... He that knows the Truth, knows what that Light is; and he that knows It, knows Eternity.
Saint Augustine
#3. The mind commands the mind to will, and yet, though it be itself, it minds not. What is this monstrous thing? And why is it?
Saint Augustine
#5. Great are those two gifts, wisdom and continence: wisdom, forsooth, whereby we are formed in the knowledge of God; continence whereby we are not conformed to this world.
Saint Augustine
#6. No one can begin a new life, unless he repent of the old.
Saint Augustine
#7. There is a joy which is not given to the ungodly, but to those who love Thee for Thine own sake, whose joy Thou Thyself art. And this is the happy life, to rejoice to Thee, of Thee, for Thee; this it is, and there is no other.
Saint Augustine
#8. When [men] go to war, what they want is to impose on their enemies the victor's will and call it peace.
Saint Augustine
#10. If you are suffering from a bad man's injustice, forgive him lest there be two bad men.
Saint Augustine
#11. God will not suffer man to have a knowledge of things to come for if he had prescience of his prosperity, he would be careless and if understanding of his adversity, he would be despairing and senseless
Saint Augustine
#13. Nothing conquers except truth and the victory of truth is love.
Saint Augustine
#14. Lord, thou madest us for thyself, and we can find no rest till we find rest in thee.
Saint Augustine
#15. A temptation arises: it is the wind. It disturbs you: it is the surging of the seas. This is the time to awaken Christ and let Him remind you of these words
Saint Augustine
#16. The bread that you see on the altar is the Body of Christ as soon as it is sanctified by God's word. The chalice, or better what is contained in the chalice, is the Blood of Christ as soon as it is sanctified by God's word
Saint Augustine
#17. He who does little, but in a state to which God calls him, does more than he who labors much, but in a state which he has thoughtlessly chosen: a cripple limping in the right way is better than a racer out of it.
Saint Augustine
#18. 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.
Saint Augustine
#19. Woman was merely man's helpmate, a function which pertains to her alone. She is not the image of God but as far as man is concerned, he is by himself the image of God.
Saint Augustine
#21. If you are silent, be silent out of love. If you speak, speak out of love.
Saint Augustine
#22. We count on God's mercy for our past mistakes, on God's love for our present needs, on God's sovereignty for our future.
Saint Augustine
#23. All truth and understanding is a result of a divine light which is God Himself.
Saint Augustine
#25. For grace is given not because we have done good works, but in order that we may be able to do them.
Saint Augustine
#26. It is better that the truth be known than that scandal be covered up.
Saint Augustine
#29. You aspire to great things? Begin with the little ones.
Saint Augustine
#30. Do not wander far and wide but return into yourself. Deep within man there dwells the truth.
Saint Augustine
#31. The entire life of a good Christian is in fact an exercise of holy desire. You do not yet see what you long for, but the very act of desiring prepares you, so that when he comes you may see and be utterly satisfied.
Saint Augustine
#32. Six is a number perfect in itself, and not because God created the world in six days; rather the contrary is true. God created the world in six days because this number is perfect, and it would remain perfect, even if the work of the six days did not exist.
Saint Augustine
#33. The rich are like beasts of burden, carrying treasure all day, and at the night of death unladen; they carry to their grave only the bruises and marks of their toil.
Saint Augustine
#35. 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?
Saint Augustine
#36. For I did not know that the soul needs to be enlightened by light from outside itself, so that it can participate in truth, because it is not itself the nature of truth.
Saint Augustine
#37. The sky and the earth and the waters and the things that are in them, the fishes, and the birds and the trees are not evil. All these are good; it is evil men who make this evil world.
Saint Augustine
#38. Cursed is everyone who places his hope in changing the nature of man
Saint Augustine
#39. There is no remedy so powerful against the heat of concupiscence as the remembrance of our Savior's Passion. In all my difficulties I never found anything so efficacious as the wounds of Christ: In them I sleep secure; from them I derive new life.
Saint Augustine
#40. God in his omnipotence could not give more, in His wisdom He knew not how to give more, in His riches He had not more to give, than the Eucharist.
Saint Augustine
#43. Just think of the illimitable abundance and the marvelous loveliness of light, or of the beauty of the sun and moon and stars.
Saint Augustine
#44. What is grace? I know until you ask me; when you ask me, I do not know.
Saint Augustine
#46. Any woman who does not give birth to as many children as she is capable is guilty of murder.
Saint Augustine
#47. What 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 Augustine
#48. Indifferent acts are judged by their ends sins are judged by themselves.
Saint Augustine
#49. To withhold forgiveness is to take poison and expect the unforgiven to die.
Saint Augustine
#50. 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.
Saint Augustine
#51. Nobody should ever doubt that in the washing of rebirth (Titus 3:5) absolutely all sins, from the least to the greatest, are altogether forgiven.
Saint Augustine
#52. For so it is, O Lord my God, I measure it! But what it is I measure, I do not know.
Saint Augustine
#53. 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?
Saint Augustine
#54. Free curiosity is of more value than harsh discipline.
Saint Augustine
#55. I did not find you outside, O Lord, because I made the mistake of seeking outside you who were within
Saint Augustine
#56. Virginity is not honored simply because it is virginity, but because it is consecrated of God.
Saint Augustine
#58. The dove loves when it quarrels; the wolf hates when it flatters.
Saint Augustine
#61. Angels are spirits, but it is not because they are spirits that they are angels. They become angels when they are sent. For the name angel refers to their office, not their nature. You ask the name of this nature, it is spirit; you ask its office, it is that of an Angel, which is a messenger.
Saint Augustine
#62. Blessed is he who devotes his life to great and noble ends, and who forms his well-considered plans with deliberate wisdom.
Saint Augustine
#63. We are and we know we are and we love to be it and know it.
Saint Augustine
#64. Two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self; the heavenly by the love of God.
Saint Augustine
#66. Keep on adding, keep on walking, keep on progressing: do not delay on the road, do not go back, do not deviate.
Saint Augustine
#67. Try to acquire the virtues you believe lacking in your brothers. Then you will no longer see their defects, for you will no longer have them yourself.
Saint Augustine
#68. 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.
Saint Augustine
#69. In what is necessary, unity; in what is not necessary, liberty and in all things charity.
Saint Augustine
#71. All those who belong to Jesus Christ are fastened with Him to the cross.
Saint Augustine
#72. The 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
#73. If we did not have rational souls, we would not be able to believe.
Saint Augustine
#74. Thus the good christian should beware of mathematicians and all those who make false prophecies, however much they may in fact speak the truth; lest, being in league with the devil, they may deceive errant souls into making common cause.
Saint Augustine
#75. Fill yourselves first and then only will you be able to give to others.
Saint Augustine
#77. He who commends the nature of the soul as the supreme good, and condemns the nature of the flesh as evil, at once both carnally desires the soul, and carnally flies the flesh, because he feels thus from human vanity, not from divine truth.
Saint Augustine
#78. Let necessity, and not your will, slay the enemy who fights against you.
Saint Augustine
#79. 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.
Saint Augustine
#80. You don't love in your enemies what they are, but what you would have them become by your prayers.
Saint Augustine
#81. We take for granted the slow miracle whereby water in the irrigation of a vineyard becomes wine. It is only when Christ turns water into wine, in a quick motion, as it were, that we stand amazed.
Saint Augustine
#82. Because God has made us for Himself, our hearts are restless until they rest in Him.
Saint Augustine
#84. The spiritual virtue of a sacrament is like light; although it passes among the impure, it is not polluted.
Saint Augustine
#85. They who shall enter into [the] joy [of the Lord] shall know what is going on outside in the outer darkness ... The saints' ... knowledge, which shall be great, shall keep them acquainted ... with the eternal sufferings of the lost.
Saint Augustine
#86. God will cleanse your sins if you yourself are dissatisfied with yourself and will keep on changing until you are perfect.
Saint Augustine
#88. Before God can deliver us we must undeceive ourselves.
Saint Augustine
#89. There is something in humility which strangely exalts the heart.
Saint Augustine
#90. I acknowledge Thee, Lord of heaven and earth, and praise Thee for my first rudiments of being, and my infancy, whereof I remember nothing; for Thou hast appointed that man should from others guess much as to himself; and believe much on the strength of weak females.
Saint Augustine
#91. God is not a deceiver, that He should offer to support us, and then, when we lean upon Him, should slip away from us.
Saint Augustine
#92. I will not live an instant that I do not live in love. Whoever loves does all things without suffering, or, suffering, loves his suffering.
Saint Augustine
#93. Beware of despairing about yourself: you are commanded to put your trust in God, and not in yourself.
Saint Augustine
#95. Where love is, what can be wanting? Where it is not, what can possibly be profitable?
Saint Augustine
#97. Other sins find their vent in the accomplishment of evil deeds, whereas pride lies in wait for good deeds, to destroy them.
Saint Augustine
#98. 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.
Saint Augustine
#99. To dye oneself with paints in order to have a rosier or a paler complexion is a lying counterfeit.
Saint Augustine
#100. Nothing, therefore, happens unless the Omnipotent wills it to happen. He either permits it to happen, or He brings it about Himself.
Saint Augustine
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