Saint Augustine Quotes

No one can have God as his father who does not have the Church as his mother.

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

"Otherwise grace is no more grace," since it is bestowed on us, not because we have done good works, but that we may be able to do them.

God has no need of your money, but the poor have. You give it to the poor, and God receives it.

The measure of love is to love without measuring.

Suppress prostitution, and capricious lusts will overthrow society.

There is nothing more serious than the sacrilege of schism because there is no just cause for severing the unity of the Church.

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

Let us sing a new song, not with our lips, but with our lives.

Since God is the highest good, he would not allow any evil to exist in his works unless his omnipotence and goodness were such as to bring good even out of evil.

We count on God's mercy for our past mistakes, on God's love for our present needs, on God's sovereignty for our future.

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

Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.

I once laboured hard for the free will of man, until the grace of God at length overcame me.

Before God can deliver us we must undeceive ourselves.

He that is jealous is not in love.

Lust indulged became habit, and habit unresisted became necessity.

Give her two red roses, each with a note. The first note says For the woman I love and the second, For my best friend.

The Old (Testament) is in the New (Testament) revealed, the New is in the Old concealed.

Symbols are powerful because they are the visible signs of invisible realities.

Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending.

And I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, seeing He saith this of the Holy Spirit, Whom except we have, we can neither love God, nor keep His commandments?

Let us understand that God is a physician, and that suffering is a medicine for salvation, not a punishment for damnation.

If you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. For where you are pleased with yourself there you have remained. Keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing.

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

I learned most, not from those who taught me but from those who talked with me.

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.

Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.

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

He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent.

All those who belong to Jesus Christ are fastened with Him to the cross.

Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance.

Without God, we cannot. Without us, God will not.

Beauty is the brilliance of truth.

I did not find you outside, O Lord, because I made the mistake of seeking outside you who were within

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

God is not what you imagine or what you think you understand. If you understand you have failed.

The greatest evil is physical pain.

For what is faith unless it is to believe what you do not see?

Anger is a weed; hate is a tree

We must understand then, that even though God doesn't always give us what we want, He always gives us what we need for our salvation.

There is a God-shaped vacuum in every man that only Christ can fill.

Hope has two lovely daughters, anger and courage.

He who falls, falls by his own will, and he who stands, stands by God's will.

He was created of a mother whom He created. He was carried by hands that He formed. He cried in the manger in wordless infancy. He, the Word, without whom all human eloquence is mute.

Do not wander far and wide but return into yourself. Deep within man there dwells the truth.

Indeed, man wishes to be happy even when he so lives as to make happiness impossible.

When [men] go to war, what they want is to impose on their enemies the victor's will and call it peace.

Unhappy is the soul enslaved by the love of anything that is mortal.

Attract them by the way you live.