St. Augustine Quotes

To abstain from sin when one can no longer sin is to be forsaken by sin, not to forsake it.

For what is time? ... Who can even in thought comprehend it, so as to utter a word about it? ... If no one asks me, I know: If I wish to explain it to one that asketh, I know not.

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.

Fill yourselves first and then only will you be able to give to others.

To my God a heart of flame; To my fellow man a heart of love; To myself a heart of steel.

God is more truly imagined than expressed, and He exists more truly than He is imagined.

I found thee not, O Lord, without, because I erred in seeking thee without that wert within.

Friendship is a word, the very sight of which in print makes the heart warm.

The time has come to lay that baggage down and leave behind all the struggling and striving. You can be set free as you journey forward into a balanced healthy and rewarding future.

Such is the strength of the burden of habit. Here I have the power to be but do not wish it. There I wish to be but lacks the power. On both grounds, I'm in misery.

Do you who are a Christian desire to be revenged and vindicated, and the death of Jesus Christ has not yet been revenged, nor His innocence vindicated?

The heart of man is restless until he finds rest in Thee.

God is not a deceiver, that He should offer to support us, and then, when we lean upon Him, should slip away from us.

You say to me 'Show me your God.' I answer you, 'Everything you see in your heart that might sadden God, remove.'

It is not the punishment but the cause that makes the martyr.

Just think of the illimitable abundance and the marvelous loveliness of light, or of the beauty of the sun and moon and stars.

It is a sin to judge any man by his post

In what is necessary, unity; in what is not necessary, liberty and in all things charity.

Our life is a gymnasium of desire.... When Christians say "God," what do we wish to express? This word is all that we yearn for."

Law Number XXXII: Hiring consultants to conduct studies can be an excellent means of turning problems into gold, your problems into their gold.

The people who remained victorious were less like conquerors than conquered.

God Almighty would in no way permit evil in His works were He not so omnipotent and good that even out of evil He could work good.

If a sufficient number of management layers are superimposed on top of each other, it can be assured that disaster is not left to chance.

The weaker the data available upon which to base one's conclusion, the greater the precision which should be quoted in order to give the data authenticity.

There are many highly successful businesses in the United States. There are also many highly paid executives. The policy is not to intermingle the two.

The wicked exist in this world either to be converted or that through them the good may exercise patience.

Our whole business in this Life is to restore to health the eye of the heart whereby God may be seen.

We can know what God is not, but we cannot know what He is.

I entered (into my inward self) and beheld with the eye of my soul...the Light Unchangeable.

The honors of this world, what are they but puff, and emptiness, and peril of falling?

The sufficiency of my merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient.

Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee.

The arrogance is not greatness but swelling; and the swelling seems big but it's not healthy.

I count myself one of the number of those who write as they learn and learn as they write.

There is no salvation outside the church.

If you understand, it is not God.

We come to God by love and not by navigation.

We are certainly in a common class with the beasts; every action of animal life is concerned with seeking bodily pleasure and avoiding pain.

You cannot attain to charity except through humility.

The measure of charity may be taken from the want of desires. As desires diminish in the soul, charity increases in it; and when it no longer feels any desire, then it possesses perfect charity.

It is the Mass that matters.

A conventional good read is usually a bad read, a relaxing bath in what we know already. A true good read is surely an act of innovative creation in which we, the readers, become conspirators.

If we did not have rational souls, we would not be able to believe.

Great is bookishness and the charm of books.

Every infinity... is made finite to God.

Repentant tears wash out the stain of guilt.

Mary heard God's word and kept it, and so she is blessed. She kept God's truth in her mind, a nobler thing than carrying his body in her womb.

The Sacraments are the salvation of those who use them rightly, and the damnation of those who misuse them.

God is best known in not knowing him.

Our bodies are shaped to bear children, and our lives are a working out of the processes of creation. All our ambitions and intelligence are beside that great elemental point.