Who is St Augustine
St Augustine was born on the 13th November 254 AD and died on the 28th August 430 AD, known at the time as Augustine of Hippo. He was a theologian and philosopher, holding the position of Bishop in a Roman province in Numidia. St Augustine is acclaimed as one of the most important figures in the church and his works had great influence on western christianity and philosophy. The City of God and Confessions were two of his most famous works.
He started out in life being drawn to many philosophical teachings but following his conversion to Catholicism, he began to explore his own beliefs and theories, playing a central role in the creation of original sin and just war. To highlight the importance of the man, his views had a huge influence on the medieval period and particularly those linked to the Reformation. Martin Luther was a member of the Order of the Augustinian Eremites.
Whilst many celebrate his contributions, there were some in the East who disputed his teachings and rejected some of his ideas, despite the fact many have appropriated his ideas and doctrine. His life is celebrated to this day on the 28th August and his words still influence people around the world.
St Augustine Quotes
1 The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.
2 Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.
3 I was not yet in love, yet I loved to love…I sought what I might love, in love with loving.
4 To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement.
5 Right is right even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.
6 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.
7 There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.
8 If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.
9 And men go abroad to admire the heights of mountains, the mighty waves of the sea, the broad tides of rivers, the compass of the ocean, and the circuits of the stars, yet pass over the mystery of themselves without a thought.
10 The measure of love is to love without measure.
11 In order to discover the character of people we have only to observe what they love.
12 God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination.
13 The punishment of every disordered mind is its own disorder.
14 The world is a book, and those who don’t travel only read one page.
15 God provides the wind, Man must raise the sail.
16 The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.
17 Faith is to believe what you do not yet see; the reward for this faith is to see what you believe.
18 Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a teardrop.
19 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.
20 Miracles are not contrary to nature but only contrary to what we know about nature.
21 Some people, in order to discover God, read books. But there is a great book: the very appearance of created things. Look above you! Look below you! Read it. God, whom you want to discover, never wrote that book with ink. Instead, He set before your eyes the things that He had made. Can you ask for a louder voice than that?
22 The mind commands the body and is instantly obeyed. The mind commands itself and meets resistance.
23 Patience is the companion of wisdom.
24 In my deepest wound I saw your glory, and it dazzled me.
25 God is always trying to give good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive them.
26 I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful; but I have never read in either of them: Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden.
27 Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.
28 How can the past and future be, when the past no longer is, and the future is not yet? As for the present, if it were always present and never moved on to become the past, it would not be time, but eternity.
29 Christ is not valued at all, unless he is valued above all.
30 Oh, God, to know you is life. To serve You is freedom. To praise you is the soul’s joy and delight. Guard me with the power of Your grace here and in all places. Now and at all times, forever. Amen.
31 In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.
32 Once for all, then, a short precept is given thee: Love, and do what thou wilt: whether thou hold thy peace, through love hold thy peace; whether thou cry out, through love cry out; whether thou correct, through love correct; whether thou spare, through love do thou spare: let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good.
33 You never go away from us, yet we have difficulty in returning to You. Come, Lord, stir us up and call us back. Kindle and seize us. Be our fire and our sweetness. Let us love. Let us run.
34 Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.
35 Belatedly I loved thee, O Beauty so ancient and so new, belatedly I loved thee. For see, thou wast within and I was without, and I sought thee out there. Unlovely, I rushed heedlessly among the lovely things thou hast made. Thou wast with me, but I was not with thee. These things kept me far from thee; even though they were not at all unless they were in thee. Thou didst call and cry aloud, and didst force open my deafness. Thou didst gleam and shine, and didst chase away my blindness. Thou didst breathe fragrant odors and I drew in my breath; and now I pant for thee. I tasted, and now I hunger and thirst. Thou didst touch me, and I burned for thy peace.
36 I held my heart back from positively accepting anything, since I was afraid of another fall, and in this condition of suspense I was being all the more killed.
37 The Bible was composed in such a way that as beginners mature, its meaning grows with them.
38 Since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special attention to those who, by accidents of time, or place, or circumstance, are brought into closer connection with you.
39 There can only be two basic loves… the love of God unto the forgetfulness of self, or the love of self unto the forgetfulness and denial of God.
40 Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.
41 Tolle, lege: take up and read.
42 For what am I to myself without You, but a guide to my own downfall?
43 If you understood him, it would not be God.
44 I was in misery, and misery is the state of every soul overcome by friendship with mortal things and lacerated when they are lost. Then the soul becomes aware of the misery which is its actual condition even before it loses them.
45 A Christian should be an Alleluia from head to foot
46 Pray as though everything depends on God. And work as if everything depends on you.
47 Too late came I to love you, O Beauty both so ancient and so new! Too late came I to love you – and behold you were with me all the time .
48 Where your pleasure is, there is your treasure: where your treasure, there your heart; where your heart, there your happiness
49 Humility must accompany all our actions, must be with us everywhere; for as soon as we glory in our good works they are of no further value to our advancement in virtue.
50 Sin is looking for the right thing in the wrong place.
51 You are my Lord, because You have no need of my goodness.
52 Love is the beauty of the soul
53 Da mihi castitatem et continentiam, sed noli modo (Give me chastity and continence, but not just yet)!
54 Sin is Energy in the wrong channel.
55 No one knows what he himself is made of, except his own spirit within him, yet there is still some part of him which remains hidden even from his own spirit; but you, Lord, know everything about a human being because you have made him…Let me, then, confess what I know about myself, and confess too what I do not know, because what I know of myself I know only because you shed light on me, and what I do not know I shall remain ignorant about until my darkness becomes like bright noon before your face.
56 Our hearts have been made for you, O God, and they shall never rest until they rest in you.
57 You called and shouted and burst my deafness. You flashed, shone, and scattered my blindness. You breathed odors, and I drew in breath and panted for You. I tasted, and I hunger and thirst. You touched me, and I burned for Your peace.
58 Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.
59 The Holy Scriptures are our letters from home.
60 The good Christian should beware of mathematicians. The danger already exists that mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and confine man in the bonds of Hell.