Quotes from St. Augustine

The desire for fame tempts even noble minds.

Because a thing is eloquently expressed it should not be taken to be as necessarily true; nor because it is uttered with stammering lips should it be supposed false.

For we cannot listen to those who maintain that the invisible God works no visible miracles; for even they believe that He made the world, which surely they will not deny to be visible. Whatever marvel happens in this world, it is certainly less marvelous than this whole world itself.

Hear, O God. Alas, for man's sin! So saith man, and Thou pitiest him; for Thou madest him, but sin is in him Thou madest not. Who remindeth me of the sins of my infancy? for in Thy sight none is pure from sin, not even the infant whose life is but a day upon the earth.

They, then, who are destined to die, need not be careful to inquire what death they are to die, but into what place death will usher them.

It is as if he should feel that there is an enemy who could be more destructive to himself than that hatred which excites him against his fellow man; or that he could destroy him whom he hates more completely than he destroys his own soul by this same hatred.

For this queen of colours, the light, bathing all which we behold, wherever I am through the day, gliding by me in varied forms, soothes me when engaged on other things, and not observing it. And so strongly doth it entwine itself, that if it be suddenly withdrawn, it is with longing sought for, and if absent long, saddeneth the mind.

God judged it better to bring good out of evil than to suffer no evil to exist.

Carnal lust rules where there is no love of God.

There is no salvation outside the church.

And how shall I call upon my God, my God and Lord, since, when I call for Him, I shall be calling Him to myself? and what room is there within me, whither my God can come into me? whither can God come into me, God who made heaven and earth? is there, indeed, O Lord my God, aught in me that can contain thee?

So if you can manage it, you shouldn't touch your partner, except for the sake of having children.

For God loves saving, not condemning, and therefore He is patient with bad people, in order to make good people out of bad people.

The good Christian should beware of astrologers. The danger already exists that astrologers have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and confine man in the bonds of Hell.

So give to the poor; I'm begging you, I'm warning you, I'm commanding you, I'm ordering you.

The mind commands the body and is instantly obeyed. The mind commands itself and meets resistance.

Will is to grace as the horse is to the rider.

I became evil for no reason. I had no motive for my wickedness except wickedness itself. It was foul, and I loved it. I loved the self-destruction, I loved my fall, not the object for which I had fallen but my fall itself. My depraved soul leaped down from your firmament to ruin. I was seeking not to gain anything by shameful means, but shame for its own sake.

Is justice therefore various or mutable? No, but the times, over which it presides, flow not evenly, because they are times.

I will pass then beyond this power of my nature also, rising by degrees unto Him Who made me.

Man, born in a family, is compelled to maintain society. Remove justice, and what are kingdoms but gangs of criminals on a large scale?

In a word, human kingdoms are established by divine providence. And if any one attributes their existence to fate, because he calls the will or the power of God itself by the name of fate, let him keep his opinion, but correct his language.

We were ensnared by the wisdom of the serpent; we are set free by the foolishness of God.

Every city is a living body.