Saint Augustine famous quotes

In no passage of the holy canonical books there can be found either divine precept or permission to take away our own life, whether for the sake of entering on the enjoyment of immortality, or of shunning, or ridding ourselves of anything whatever. Nay, the law, rightly interpreted, even prohibits suicide, where it says, 'Thou shalt not kill.' This is proved especially by the omission of the words "thy neighbor," which are inserted when false witness is forbidden.
-- Saint Augustine

#Suicide #Book #Suicidal

A Christian is: a mind through which Christ thinks, a heart through which Christ loves, a voice through which Christ speaks, and a hand through which Christ helps.
-- Saint Augustine

#Christian #Heart #Thinking

Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.
-- Saint Augustine

#Faith #Prayer #Work

Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.
-- Saint Augustine

#Inspirational #Faith #Spiritual

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.
-- Saint Augustine

#Inspirational #Life #Travel

If two friends ask you to judge a dispute, don't accept, because you will...
-- Saint Augustine

#Two #Judging #Accepting

Women should not be enlightened or educated in any way. They should, in fact, be segregated as they are the cause of hideous and involuntary erections in holy men.
-- Saint Augustine

#Men #Scary #Way

Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved.
-- Saint Augustine

#Soul #Beloved #God 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... Now, let us acknowledge the wonder of our physical incarnation- that we are here, in these particular bodies, at this particular time, in these particular circumstances. May we never take for granted the gift of our individuality.
-- Saint Augustine

#Gratitude #Stars #Ocean

He cannot have God for his Father who will not have the Church for his mother.
-- Saint Augustine

#Mother #Father #Church

Love God, and do what you like.
-- Saint Augustine

#God Love

Love, and do what you will. If you keep silence, do it out of love. If you cry out, do it out of love. If you refrain from punishing, do it out of love.
-- Saint Augustine

#Silence #Cry #Refrain

He who does not have the church as his mother, does not have God as his father.
-- Saint Augustine

#Christian #Mother #Father

That your enemies have been created is God's doing; that they hate you and wish to ruin you is their own doing. What should you say about them in your mind? "Lord be merciful to them, forgive them their sins, put the fear of God in them, change them!" You are loving in them not what they are, but what you would have them to become.
-- Saint Augustine

#Love #Hate #Forgiving

It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.
-- Saint Augustine

#Humility #Angel #Pride

By faithfulness we are collected and wound up into unity within ourselves, whereas we had been scattered abroad in multiplicity.
-- Saint Augustine

#Unity #Be Patient #Faithfulness

O Lord, grant that I may do Thy will as if it were my will, so that Thou mayest do my will as if it were Thy will.
-- Saint Augustine

#Prayer #May #Lord

Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.
-- Saint Augustine

#Love #Beauty #Wedding

For if a thing is not diminished by being shared with others, it is not rightly owned if it is only owned and not shared.
-- Saint Augustine

The Old (Testament) is in the New (Testament) revealed, the New is in the Old concealed.
-- Saint Augustine

#Christian #Old Testament #New Testament

Love is ever new because it never groweth old.
-- Saint Augustine

#Love #Love Is

There is no love without hope, no hope without love, and neither love nor hope without faith.
-- Saint Augustine

#No Hope #Without Hope

The good man, though a slave, is free; the wicked, though he reigns, is a slave.
-- Saint Augustine

#Men #Good Man #Wicked

Why then be perverted and follow thy flesh? Be it converted and follow thee.
-- Saint Augustine

#Flesh #Thee

Nothing, therefore, happens unless the Omnipotent wills it to happen. He either permits it to happen, or He brings it about Himself.
-- Saint Augustine

#Christian #Christian Inspirational #Permit

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

#Stars #Moon #Thinking

Where love is, what can be wanting? Where it is not, what can possibly be profitable?
-- Saint Augustine

#Inspirational #Life #Positive

Patience is the companion of wisdom.
-- Saint Augustine

#Inspirational #Patience #Wisdom

Love all men, even your enemies; love them, not because they are your brothers, but that they may become your brothers. Thus you will ever burn with fraternal love, both for him who is already your brother and for your enemy, that he may by loving become your brother.
-- Saint Augustine

#Life #Brother #Men

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.
-- Saint Augustine

#Life #Spring #Love Is

Love and do as you will.
-- Saint Augustine

#Love

Love and say it with your life.
-- Saint Augustine

Dilige et quod vis fac. (Love and then what you will, do.)
-- Saint Augustine

Watch, O Lord, with those who wake, or watch or weep tonight, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend your sick ones, O Lord Jesus Christ; rest your weary ones; bless your dying ones; soothe your suffering ones; pity your afflicted ones; shield your joyous ones; and all for your love's sake. Amen.
-- Saint Augustine

#Jesus #Sleep #Angel

The purpose of all wars, is peace.
-- Saint Augustine

#War #Catholic #Purpose

I did not find you outside, O Lord, because I made the mistake of seeking outside you who were within
-- Saint Augustine

#Mistake #Lord #Divine

Learn to dance, so when you get to heaven the angels know what to do with you.
-- Saint Augustine

#Dance #Angel #Heaven

The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.
-- Saint Augustine

#Lions #Truth Is

Every visible thing in this world is put in the charge of an angel.
-- Saint Augustine

#Angel #World #This World

You have enemies. For who can live on this earth without them? Take heed to yourselves: love them. In no way can your enemy so hurt you by his violence, as you hurt yourself if you love him not.
-- Saint Augustine

#Hurt #Self Love #Enemy

Oh, beauty, ever ancient and ever new.
-- Saint Augustine

#Beauty #Ancient

We make ourselves a ladder out of our vices if we trample the vices themselves underfoot.
-- Saint Augustine

#Vices #Ladders

Will is to grace as the horse is to the rider.
-- Saint Augustine

#Horse #Philosophical #Grace

He that is jealous is not in love.
-- Saint Augustine

#Love #Philosophical #Jealous

Fasting cleanses the soul, raises the mind, subjects one’s flesh to the spirit, renders the heart contrite and humble, scatters the clouds of concupiscence, quenches the fire of lust, and kindles the true light of chastity. Enter again into yourself.
-- Saint Augustine

#Heart #Humble #Light

To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement.
-- Saint Augustine

#God #Faith #Falling In Love

O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams.
-- Saint Augustine

#Heart #Dark #Dwelling

Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.
-- Saint Augustine

#Life #Change #Beautiful

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

#Art #Happy Life #Joy

An apt and true reply was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride. "What thou meanest by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, whilst thou who dost it with a great fleet art styled emperor."
-- Saint Augustine

#Wisdom #Art #Kings

Let us sing a new song, not with our lips, but with our lives.
-- Saint Augustine

#Life #Song #Lips

Grant what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt.
-- Saint Augustine

#Philosophical #Command #Grants

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

#Love #Broken Heart #Kissing

He who is filled with love is filled with God himself.
-- Saint Augustine

#God #Love Is #Spirituality

Without God, we cannot. Without us, God will not
-- Saint Augustine

#Christian #Christian Inspirational #Gods Will

Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.
-- Saint Augustine

#Inspirational Life #Philosophical #Humility

Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.
-- Saint Augustine

#Inspirational #Nature #Philosophical

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

#Wind #Sea #Temptation

No one knows what he himself is made of, except his own spirit within him, yet there is still some part of him which remains hidden even from his own spirit; but you, Lord, know everything about a human being because you have made him...Let me, then, confess what I know about myself, and confess too what I do not know, because what I know of myself I know only because you shed light on me, and what I do not know I shall remain ignorant about until my darkness becomes like bright noon before your face.
-- Saint Augustine

#Light #Darkness #Ignorant

Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee.
-- Saint Augustine

#Philosophical #Heart #Quiet

O Lord, help me to be pure, but not yet.
-- Saint Augustine

#Funny #Witty #Humorous

Forgiveness is the remission of sins. For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again.
-- Saint Augustine

#Forgiveness #Sin #Lost

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.
-- Saint Augustine

#Inspirational #Life #Faith

Love is the beauty of the soul.
-- Saint Augustine

#Love #Beauty #Soul

He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent.
-- Saint Augustine

#Faith #Philosophical #Catholic

God is not what you imagine or what you think you understand. If you understand you have failed.
-- Saint Augustine

#Godly #Thinking #Imagine

Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.
-- Saint Augustine

#Philosophical #Perfect #Catholic

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

#Omnipotence #Giving #Riches

Since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special attention to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstances, are brought into closer connection with you.
-- Saint Augustine

#Inspirational #Catholic #Special

This very moment I may, if I desire, become the friend of God.
-- Saint Augustine

#Desire #May #Saint

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

#Vanity #Evil #Soul

The greatest evil is physical pain.
-- Saint Augustine

#Pain #Evil #Physical Pain

Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.
-- Saint Augustine

#Faith #Believe #Catholic

What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know.
-- Saint Augustine

#Time #Wish #Time Management

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.
-- Saint Augustine

#God #Faith #Believe

Free curiosity is of more value than harsh discipline.
-- Saint Augustine

#Discipline #Curiosity #Harsh

Where your pleasure is, there is your treasure: where your treasure, there your heart; where your heart, there your happiness
-- Saint Augustine

#Happiness #Heart #Optimism

The good Christian should beware of mathematicians and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and confine man in the bonds of Hell.
-- Saint Augustine

#Christian #Science #Men

We come to God by love and not by navigation.
-- Saint Augustine

#Yoga #Navigation

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

#Giving #Saint #Needs

Unhappy is the soul enslaved by the love of anything that is mortal.
-- Saint Augustine

#Soul #Unhappy

If you understood him, it would not be God.
-- Saint Augustine

#Christian Inspirational #Understanding #Understood

God is more truly imagined than expressed, and He exists more truly than He is imagined.
-- Saint Augustine

#Faith

We cannot pass our guardian angel's bounds, resigned or sullen, he will hear our sighs.
-- Saint Augustine

#Philosophical #Character #Angel

What you are must always displease you, if you would attain to that which you are not.
-- Saint Augustine

#Success #Achievement

In failing to confess, Lord, I would only hide You from myself, not myself from You.
-- Saint Augustine

#Failing #Lord #Confession

All the dancer's gestures are signs of things, and the dance called rational, because it aptly signifies and displays something over and above the pleasure of the senses.
-- Saint Augustine

#Dance #Gestures #Pleasure

The world is a great book, of which they that never stir from home read only a page.
-- Saint Augustine

#Life #Book #Home

Do what you can and pray for what you cannot yet do.
-- Saint Augustine

#Prayer #Praying

What do you possess if you possess not God?
-- Saint Augustine

#Saint

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.
-- Saint Augustine

#Wisdom #Fake People #Humility

Two loves have made two different cities: self-love hath made a terrestrial city, which rises in contempt of God; and Divine Love hath made a celestial one, which rises in contempt of self. The former glories in itself - the latter in God.
-- Saint Augustine

#Self #Cities #Two

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.
-- Saint Augustine

#Humility #Thinking #Wish

There is something in humility which strangely exalts the heart.
-- Saint Augustine

#Heart #Humble #Humility

Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.
-- Saint Augustine

#Funny #Witty #Humorous

The Bible was composed in such a way that as beginners mature, its meaning grows with them.
-- Saint Augustine

#Way #Beginners #Mature

Such is the strength of the burden of habit. Here I have the power to be but do not wish it. There I wish to be but lacks the power. On both grounds, I'm in misery.
-- Saint Augustine

#Wish #Misery #Habit

For what is faith unless it is to believe what you do not see?
-- Saint Augustine

#Religious #Believe

The dove loves when it quarrels; the wolf hates when it flatters.
-- Saint Augustine

#Hate #Dove #Quarrels

Repentant tears wash out the stain of guilt.
-- Saint Augustine

#Guilt #Tears #Stains