Saint Augustine of Hippo

For the rejection of heretics makes the tenets of Thy Church and sound doctrine to stand out more clearly. For there must also be heresies, that the approved may be made manifest among the weak.

I had prayed to you for chastity and said give me chastity and continence, but not yet. For I was afraid that you would answer my prayer at once and cure me too soon of the disease of kust, which I wanted satisfied, not…

Our enemies can often correct our faults by their disparagement, just ad the flattery of friends can corrupt us.

But you do not search out our faults ruthlessly, and because of this we hope and believe that one day we shall find a place with you. Yet if any man makes a list of his deserts, what would it be but a list of your gifts?

The man who serves you best is the one who is less intent on hearing from you what he wills to hear from you than on shaping his will according to what he hears from you.

I deserted truth for worldly things and the night closed over me, but even then, even in my darkness, I continued to love you, o Truth. I wandered away, but I remembered you. I heard your voice at my back, calling me to…

For if we play shepherd to the wind, we find pasture for the devils, because by straying from the truth we give them food for laughter and fill their cup of pleasure.

As Christians, our task is to make daily progress toward God. Our pilgrimage on earth is a school in which God is the only teacher, and it demands good students, not one who play truant. In this school we learn something…

Why then should a man, who has done no wrong, do wrong to himself?

He who is filled with love is filled with God himself.

Too late have I loved You. You were within me but I was outside myself, and there I sought You.

O Thou Good omnipotent, who so carest for every one of us, as if Thou caredst for him only; and so for all, as if they were but one!

The aim of our orator, then, when speaking of things that are just and holy and good--and he should not speak of anything else--the aim, as I say, that he pursues to the best of his ability when he speaks of these things…

With what destination in mind are you walking, endlessly, endlessly, on those hard paths of suffering? There's no rest where you're looking for it. Look for what you're looking for--but it's not there where you're lookin…

Tell me, in the name of your mercies, you, Master, who are my God, what you are to me. Say to my soul, 'I myself am your rescue.' Say it in such a way that I hear it. Here before you are the ears with which my heart hear…

Thou owest men nothing, yet payest out to them as if in debt to thy creature, and when thou dost cancel debts thou losest nothing thereby.

Who can unravel this most snarled, knotty tangle? It is disgusting, and I do not want to look at it or see it. O justice and innocence, fair and lovely, it is on you that I want to gaze with eyes that see purely and find…

Come, O Lord, and stir our hearts. Call us back to yourself. Kindle your fire in us.

Our hearts are restless until they find peace in you.

Never can a man be more disastrously in death than when death itself is deathless

People are moved to wonder by mountain peaks, by vast waves of the sea, by broad waterfalls on rivers, by the all-embracing extent of the ocean, by the revolutions of the stars. But in themselves they are uninterested.

Omnis natura, inquantum natura est, bonum est.

Our city must remember that in the ranks of its enemies, lie hid fellow citizens to be, and that it is well to bear with them until we can reach them in their profession of faith.

...a man is not in any difficulty in making a reply according to his faith ... to those who try to defame our Holy Scripture. ... when they produce from any of their books a theory contrary to Scripture ... either we sha…

The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works.

THE WORLD IS A BOOK AND THOSE WHO DO NOT TRAVEL READ ONLY A PAGE

Da quod iubes et iube quod visGive what thou commandest and command what thou wilt

O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams.

As the flattery of friends corrupts, so often do the taunts of enemies instruct.

Is any man skillful enough to have fashioned himself?

It was foul, and I loved it. I loved to perish. I loved my own ' not that for which I erred, but the itself. Base, falling from Your firmament to utter destruction ' not seeking anything through the shame but the shame i…

The wisdom of what a person says is in direct proportion to his progress in learning the holy scriptures--and I am not speaking of intensive reading or memorization, but real understanding and careful investigation of th…

What matters it to me if someone does not understand this? Let him too rejoice and say, 'What is this?' Let him rejoice even at this, and let him love to find you while not finding it out, rather than, while finding it o…

This is what we love in friends. We love to the point that human conscience feels guilty if we do not love the person who is loving us, and if that love is not returned - without demanding any physical response other tha…

Heaven forbid that we should believe in such a way as not to accept or seek reasons, since we could not even believe if we did not possess rational souls.

We speak, but it is God who teaches.

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

Man's maker was made man that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother's breast; that the Bread might hunger, the Fountain thirst, the Light sleep, the Way be tired on its journey; that Truth might be accused of…

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

If you keep silent, keep silent by love: if you speak, speak by love; if you correct, correct by love; if you pardon, pardon by love; let love be rooted in you, and from the root nothing but good can grow.Love and do wha…

Love is the beauty of the soul

Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which yo…

For what am I to myself without You, but a guide to my own downfall?