Saint Augustine of Hippo Quotes (22 Quotes)

If bodies please thee, praise God on occasion of them, and turn back thy love upon their Maker lest in these things which please thee, thou displease. If souls please thee, be they loved in God for they too are mutable, but in Him they are firmly established.

Six is a number perfect in itself, and not because God created the world in six days rather the contrary is true. God created the world in six days because this number is perfect, and it would remain perfect, even if the work of the six days did not exist.

Faith is to believe what we do not see and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.

To wisdom belongs the intellectual apprehension of things eternal to knowledge, the rational apprehension of things temporal.

The good Christian should beware of mathematicians, and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell.

Late have I loved Thee, O Lord and behold, Thou wast within and I without, and there I sought Thee. Thou was with me when I was not with Thee. Thou didst call, and cry, and burst my deafness. Thou didst gleam, and glow, and dispell my blindness. Thou didst touch me, and I burned for Thy peace. For Thyself Thou hast made us, and restless our hearts until in Thee they find their ease. Late have I loved Thee, Thou Beauty ever old and ever new. Thou hast burst my bonds asunder unto Thee will I offer up an offering of praise.

Imagine the vanity of thinking that your enemy can do you more damage than your enmity.

Anger is a weed hate is the tree.

God will not suffer man to have knowledge of things to come for if he had prescience of his prosperity, he would be careless and understanding of his adversity, he would be senseless.

When all is said and done, is there any more wonderful sight, any moment when man's reason is nearer to some sort of contact with the nature of the world than the sowing of seeds, the planting of cuttings, the transplanting of shrubs or the grafting of slips.

If we live good lives, the times are good. As we are, such are the times.

Picture God as saying to you, 'My son, why is it that day by day you rise, and pray, and even strike the ground with your forehead, nay sometimes even shed tears, while you say to Me 'My Father, give me wealth' If I were to give it to you, you would think yourself of some importance, you would fancy that you had gained something very great. Because you asked for it, you have it. But take care to make good use of it. Before you had it, you were humble now that you have begun to be rich, you despise the poor. What kind of a good is that which only makes you worse For worse you are, since you were bad already. And that it would make you worse you knew not hence you asked it of Me. I gave it to you, and I proved you you have found and you have found out Ask of Me better things than these, greater things than these. Ask of Me spiritual things. Ask of Me Myself'

To be under pressure is inescapable. Pressure takes place through all the world war, siege, the worries of state. We all know men who grumble under these pressures and complain. They are cowards. They lack splendour. But there is another sort of man who is under the same pressure but does not complain, for it is the friction which polishes him. It is the pressure which refines and makes him noble.

Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that thou mayst believe, but believe that thou mayst understand.

Give me chastity and continency, but do not give it yet.

I have learnt to love you late, Beauty at once so ancient and so new.

Free curiosity is of more value than harsh discipline.

Though he avoided outright endorsement of the view, fifth-century Church Father Saint Augustine was clearly familiar with the theory of the spherical earth 'They those who believe that 'there are men on the other side of the earth' fail to observe that even if the world is held to be global or rounded in shape, or if some process of reasoning should prove this to be the case, it would still not necessarily follow that the land on the opposite side is not covered by masses of water.'

An apt and true reply was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride. 'What thou meanest by seizing the whole earth but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, whilst thou who dost it with a great fleet art styled emperor.'

Of this I am certain, that no one has ever died who was not destined to die some time. Now the end of life puts the longest life on a par with the shortest.... And of what consequence is it what kind of death puts an end to life, since he who has died once is not forced to go through the same ordeal a second time 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.

Thy word remaineth for ever, which word now appeareth unto us in the riddle of the clouds, and through the mirror of the heavens, not as it is because that even we, though the well beloved of thy Son, yet it hath not yet appeared what we shall be. He looked through the lattice of our flesh and he spake us fair, yea, he set us on fire, and we hasten on his scent. But when he shall appear, then shall we be like him, for we shall see him as he is as he is, Lord, will our sight be, though the time be not yet.

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 thereyou have remained. Keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing.