Saint Augustine

Saint Augustine

Augustine of Hippo (13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was an early Christian theologian and philosopher whose writings influenced the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy. Augustine is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers in Western Christianity for his writings in the Patristic Era.

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Patience is the companion of wisdom.

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

Beauty is indeed a good gift of God; but that the good may not think it a great good, God dispenses it even to the wicked.

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.

There is something in humility which strangely exalts the heart.

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.

He that is jealous is not in love.

It was pride that changed angels into devils, it is humility that makes men as angels.

God judged it better to bring good out of evil, than to suffer no evil to exist.

The World is a book and those who do not travel read only a page.

In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?

God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.

Miracles are not contrary to nature but only contrary to what we know about nature.

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

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.

Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.

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

We are certainly in a common class with the beasts, every action of animal life is concerned with seeking bodily pleasure and avoiding pain.

Who can map out the various forces at play in one soul? Man is a great depth O Lord. The hairs of his head are easier by far to count than his feeling the movements of his heart.

He that is kind is free though he is a slave, he that is evil is a slave though he be a king.

Faith is to believe what you do not see, the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.

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

Love is the beauty of the soul.

Seek not to understand that you may believe but believe that you may understand.

Indeed man wishes to be happy even when he so lives as to make happiness impossible.

Give me chastity and continence but not yet.

The words printed here are concepts. You must go through the experiences.

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.

The greatest evil is physical pain.

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.

No eulogy is due to him who simply does his duty and nothing more.

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.

Will is to grace as the horse is to the rider.

Hear the other side.

Don't you believe that there is in man a deep so profound as to be hidden even to him in whom it is?

What I needed most was to love and to be loved eager to be caught. Happily I wrapped those painful bonds around me, and sure enough I would be lashed with the red-hot pokers or jealousy by suspicions and fear by burst of anger and quarrels.

Grant what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt.

If we live good lives the times are also good. As we are such are the times.

Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.

To seek the highest good is to live well.

The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works.

This is the very perfection of a man to find out his own imperfections.

Since love grows within you so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.

I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful, but I have never read in either of them: Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden.

I want my friend to miss me as long as I miss him.

My mind withdrew its thoughts from experience extracting itself from the contradictory throng of sensuous images that it might find out what that light was wherein it was bathed... And thus with the flash of one hurried glance it attained to the vision of That Which Is.

Our bodies are shaped to bear children and our lives are a working out of the processes of creation. All our ambitions and intelligence are beside that great elemental point.

Oh Lord give me chastity but do not give it yet.

Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need, the remainder is needed by others.

The purpose of all wars is peace.

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.

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.

To many total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.

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.

Love and do what you like.

To abstain from sin when one can no longer sin is to be forsaken by sin not to forsake it.

God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.

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

Thou must be emptied of that wherewith thou art full that thou mayest be filled with that whereof thou art empty.

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

I found thee not O Lord without because I erred in seeking thee without that wert within.

It is not the punishment but the cause that makes the martyr.

O Lord help me to be pure but not yet.

If we did not have rational souls we would not be able to believe.

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.

A thing is not necessarily true because badly uttered nor false because spoken magnificently.

Punishment is justice for the unjust.

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

Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.

There is no possible source of evil except good.

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