Saint Augustine Quotes

“Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending.”

“It seems to me that an unjust law is no law at all.”

“Really great things, when discussed by little men, can usually make such men grow big.”

“Disturbers are to be rebuked, the low spirited to be encouraged, the infirm to be supported, objectors confuted, the treacherous guarded against, the unskilled taught, the lazy aroused, the contentious restrained, the haughty repressed, the poor relieved, the oppressed liberated, the good approved, the evil borne with, and all are to be loved!”

“Just as it is agreed that we all wish to be happy, so it is that we all wish to be wise, since no one without wisdom is happy.”

“I make bold to say that it is profitable for the proud to fall, in order that they may be humbled in that for which they have exalted themselves.”

“Try as they may to savor the taste of eternity, their thoughts still twist and turn upon the ebb and flow of things in past and future time. But if only their minds could be seized and held steady, they would be still for a while and, for that short moment, they would glimse the splendor of eternity, which is forever still.”

“It will not be held against you that you are ignorant against your will, but that you neglect to seek out what it is that makes you ignorant; not that you cannot bring together your wounded limbs, but that you reject Him that would heal them.”

“Every city is a living body.”

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

“If the future and the past really exist, where are they?”

“Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.”

“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.”

“Let our lives be good, and the times are good. We make our times; such as we are, such are the times.”

“Two works of mercy set a person free: Forgive and you will be forgiven, and give and you will receive.”

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

“Try to acquire the virtues you believe lacking in your brothers. Then you will no longer see their defects, for you will no longer have them yourself.”

“He indeed possesses the Character imposed on him, but he wanders as a renegade.”

“Things are solved by walking around.”

“For what is time? ... Who can even in thought comprehend it, so as to utter a word about it? ... If no one asks me, I know: If I wish to explain it to one that asketh, I know not.”

“It is a sin to judge any man by his post”

“Dilige et quod vis fac. (Love and then what you will, do.)”

“What then, is correctness of speech but the maintenance of the practice of others, as established by the authority of ancient speakers? But the weaker men are, the more they are troubled by such matters. Their weakness stems from a desire to appear learned, not with a knowledge of things, by which we are edified, but with a knowledge of signs, by which it is difficult not to be puffed up in some way; even a knowledge of things often makes people boastful, unless their necks are held down by the Lord's yoke.”

“In order to discover the character of people we have only to observe what they love.”

“Go forth on your path, as it exists only through your walking.”