Saint Augustine Quotes

“Men go forth to marvel at the height of mountains, and the huge waves of the sea, the broad flow of the rivers, the vastness of the ocean, the orbits of the stars, and yet they neglect to marvel at themselves. Variant: Men go abroad to admire the heights of mountains, the mighty billows of the sea, the broad tides of rivers, the compass of the ocean, and the circuits of the stars, and pass themselves by.”

“If I am given a formula, and I am ignorant of its meaning, it cannot teach me anything, but if I already know it what does the formula teach me?”

“Love can be angry... with a kind of anger in which there is no gall, like the dove's and not the ravens.”

“The cost of obedience is small compared with the cost of disobedience.”

“To be under pressure is inescapable. Pressure takes place through all the world; war, siege, the worries of state. We all know men who grumble under these pressures and complain. They are cowards. They lack splendour. But there is another sort of man who is under the same pressure but does not complain, for it is the friction which polishes him. It is the pressure which refines and makes him noble”

“For it is better to suffer a little want than to have too much.”

“Though in the order of nature angels rank above men, yet, by scale of justice, good men are of greater value than bad angels.”

“What is time? If I am not asked, I know; if I am asked, I don't.”

“Don't let your life give evidence against your tongue. Sing with your voices... sing also with your conduct.”

“Cursed is everyone who places his hope in changing the nature of man”

“What is grace? I know until you ask me; when you ask me, I do not know.”

“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.”

“Do you wish to be great? Then begin by being little. 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. Modest humility is beauty's crown.”

“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.”

“It is no advantage to be near the light if the eyes are closed.”

“I held my heart back from positively accepting anything, since I was afraid of another fall, and in this condition of suspense I was being all the more killed.”

“In what is necessary, unity; in what is not necessary, liberty and in all things charity.”

“If a shameless woman expects to be defiled and then dies of her fierce love because you do not consent, will chastity also be homicide?”

“Moral character is assessed not by what a man knows but by what he loves”

“Peace is not sought in order to provoke war, but war is waged in order to attain peace.”

“There is no greater invitation to love than loving first.”

“Slavery is not penal in character and planned by that law which commands the preservation of the natural order and forbids disturbance.”

“Your wisdom should be without pride.”

“O Master, make me chaste, but not yet!”

“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.”