Saint Augustine Quotes

To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement.

Patience is the companion of wisdom.

A Christian is: a mind through which Christ thinks, a heart through which Christ loves, a voice through which Christ speaks, and a hand through which Christ helps.

Take care of your body as if you were going to live forever; and take care of your soul as if you were going to die tomorrow.

The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.

Because God has made us for Himself, our hearts are restless until they rest in Him.

Remember this. When people choose to withdraw far from a fire, the fire continues to give warmth, but they grow cold. When people choose to withdraw far from light, the light continues to be bright in itself but they are in darkness. This is also the case when people withdraw from God.

Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.

If God seems slow in responding, it is because He is preparing a better gift. He will not deny us. God withholds what you are not yet ready for. He wants you to have a lively desire for His greatest gifts. All of which is to say, pray always and do not lose heart.

Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.

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.

What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.

There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.

Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being in love which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.

Learn to dance, so when you get to heaven the angels know what to do with you.

There is no love without hope, no hope without love, and neither hope nor love without faith.

Where your pleasure is, there is your treasure: where your treasure, there your heart; where your heart, there your happiness

God of our life, there are days when the burdens we carry chafe our shoulders and weigh us down; when the road seems dreary and endless, the skies gray and threatening; when our lives have no music in them, and our hearts are lonely, and our souls have lost their courage. Flood the path with light, run our eyes to where the skies are full of promise; tune our hearts to brave music; give us the sense of comradeship with heroes and saints of every age; and so quicken our spirits that we may be able to encourage the souls of all who journey with us on the road of life, to your honor and glory.

Christ is not valued at all, unless he is valued above all.

Beware of despairing about yourself: you are commanded to put your trust in God, and not in yourself.

Bad times, hard times, this is what people keep saying; but let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times: Such as we are, such are the times.

Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a teardrop.

It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.

If you are silent, be silent out of love. If you speak, speak out of love.

In all trouble you should seek God. You should not set Him over against your troubles, but within them. God can only relieve your troubles if you in your anxiety cling to Him. Trouble should not really be thought of as this thing or that in particular, for our whole life on earth involves trouble; and through the troubles of our earthly pilgrimage we find God.

God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.

What is reprehensible is that while leading good lives themselves and abhorring those of wicked men, some, fearing to offend, shut their eyes to evil deeds instead of condemning them and pointing out their malice.

Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.

If you should ask me what are the ways of God, I would tell you that the first is humility, the second is humility, and the third is humility. Not that there are no other precepts to give, but if humility does not preceed all that we do, our efforts are fruitless.

Two criminals were crucified with Christ. One was saved; do not despair. One was not; do not presume.

Therefore once for all this short command is given to you. 'Love and do what you will.' 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.

If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.

Keep on adding, keep on walking, keep on progressing: do not delay on the road, do not go back, do not deviate.

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

Do you desire security? Here you have it. The Lord says to you, "I will never abandon you, I will always be with you." If a good man made you such a promise, you would trust him. God makes it, and do you doubt? Do you seek a support more sure than the word of God, which is infallible? Surely, He has made the promise, He has written it, He has pledged His word for it, it is most certain.

He who has God has everything; he who has everything but God has nothing.

Sin is believing the lie that you are self-created, self-dependent and self-sustained.

Every morning you put on your clothes to cover your nakedness and protect your body from inclement weather. Why don't you also clothe your soul with the garment of faith? Remember each morning the truths of your creed, and look at yourself in the mirror of your faith. Otherwise, your soul will soon be naked with the nakedness of oblivion.

Fasting cleanses the soul, raises the mind, subjects one’s flesh to the spirit, renders the heart contrite and humble, scatters the clouds of concupiscence, quenches the fire of lust, and kindles the true light of chastity.

Trust the past to the mercy of God, the present to His love, and the future to His providence.

If you are suffering from a bad man's injustice, forgive him lest there be two bad men.

To sing is to pray twice.

Do what you can and pray for what you cannot yet do.

Recognize in this bread what hung on the cross, and in this chalice what flowed from His side... whatever was in many and varied ways announced beforehand in the sacrifices of the Old Testament pertains to this one sacrifice which is revealed in the New Testament.

Order your soul; reduce your wants; live in charity; associate in Christian community; obey the laws; trust in Providence.

Passion is the evil in adultery. If a man has no opportunity of living with another man's wife, but if it is obvious for some reason that he would like to do so, and would do so if he could, he is no less guilty than if he was caught in the act.

Do not believe yourself healthy. Immortality is health; this life is a long sickness.

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

Christ held Himself in His hands when He gave His Body to His disciples saying: 'This is My Body.' No one partakes of this Flesh before he has adored it.

Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.