Augustine of Hippo
159 quotes
Biography
"Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee."
"To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement."
"If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don't like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself."
"Miracles are not contrary to nature but only contrary to what we know about nature."
"Once for all, then, a short precept is given thee: Love, and do what thou wilt: whether thou hold thy peace, through love hold thy peace; whether thou cry out, through love cry out; whether thou correct, through love correct; whether thou spare, through love do thou spare: let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good."
"In my deepest wound I saw your glory, and it dazzled me."
"Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand."
"There can only be two basic loves... the love of God unto the forgetfulness of self, or the love of self unto the forgetfulness and denial of God."
"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."
"If you understood him, it would not be God."
"Our hearts have been made for you, O God, and they shall never rest until they rest in you."
"Free curiosity has greater power to stimulate learning than rigorous coercion. Nevertheless, the free ranging flux of curiosity is channeled by discipline under Your Law."
"We speak, but it is God who teaches."
"The peace of the celestial city is the perfectly ordered and harmonious enjoyment of God, and of one another in God. (City of God, Book 19)"
"It’s not in the book or in the writer that readers discern the truth of what they read; they see it in themselves, if the light of truth has penetrated their minds."
"Charity is no substitute for justice withheld."
"What do I love when I love my God?"
"I probably felt more resentment for what I personally was to suffer than for the wrong they were doing to anyone and everyone. But at that time I was determined not to put up with badly behaved people more out of my own interest than because I wanted them to become good people."
"Let the Lord your God be your hope – seek for nothing else from him, but let him himself be your hope. There are people who hope from him riches or perishable and transitory honours, in short they hope to get from God things which are not God himself."
"Le bonheur, c'est continuer à désirer ce que l'on a déjà."
"Augustine, Augustine, quid quaeris? Putasne brevi immettere vasculo mare totum?"
"Noli foras ire, in teipsum redi, in interiore homine habitat veritas. Et si tuam naturam mutabilem inveneris, trascende et teipsum."
"Nowhere in the Gospel do we read that the Lord said: "I am sending you a Paraclete who will teach you about the course of the sun and moon." For He wanted to make Christians, not mathematicians."
"The superfluities of the rich are the necessaries of the poor. They who possess superfluities, possess the goods of others."
"Cum dilectione hominum et odio vitiorum."