Quotes By Saint Augustine

Hear the other side.

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.

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

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

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.

Punishment is justice for the unjust.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.

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.

Love is the beauty of the soul.

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

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.

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.