Quotes By Saint Augustine

There is something in humility which strangely exalts the heart.

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

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

Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.

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.

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.

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

Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

Love is the beauty of the soul.

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

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

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.

To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.

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

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

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

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

He that is jealous is not in love.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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