God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.
– Augustine
God
Patience is the companion of wisdom.
– Augustine
Patience | Wisdom
Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.
– Augustine
Prayer Achievement Work
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.
– Augustine
Death Eternity
If you plan to build a tall house of virtues, you must first lay deep foundations of humlilty.
– Augustine
Humility | Virtue
God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination.
– Augustine
Repentance
God is always trying to give good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive them.
– Augustine
Providence
Trials come to prove and improve us.
– Augustine
Trials
Hope is a waking dream.
– Augustine
Hope
The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works.
– Augustine
Sin | Good and Evil | Confession
He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent.
– Augustine
Salvation
Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.
– Augustine
Miracles | Nature
Faith is to believe what we do not see, and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.
– Augustine
Faith
To seek the highest good is to live well.
– Augustine
Good and Evil
Wicked men obey from fear; good men, from love.
– Augustine
Obedience | Men
God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.
– Augustine
Jesus | Suffering
He wishes to give who advises us to ask.
– Augustine
God
He that loveth little prayeth little, he that loveth much prayeth much.
– Augustine
Prayer | Love
The Holy Scriptures are our letters from home.
– Augustine
Scripture | Home
A lie consists in speaking a falsehood with the intention of deceiving.
– Augustine
Lying
The Jews looked upon a serpent to be freed from serpents; and we look upon the death of Christ to be delivered from death.
– Augustine
Christ | Death | Salvation
He was created of a mother whom He created. He was carried by hands that He formed. He cried in the manger in wordless infancy, He the Word, without whom all human eloquence is mute.”
– Augustine
Christmas | Christ
It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.
– Augustine
Angels | Pride | Humility
Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee.
– Augustine
God | Rest | Creation
Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.
– Augustine
Faith
Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.
– Augustine
Love | Beauty
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.
– Augustine
Love | Charity | Helping
Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.
– Augustine
Philosophy | Men | Nature
He that is kind is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king.
– Augustine
Kindness | Good and Evil | Freedom
Trust the past to God’s mercy, the present to God’s love and the future to God’s providence.
– Augustine
Trust
Christ is not valued at all unless He is valued above all.
– Augustine
Christ
Where I found truth, there found I my God, who is the truth itself.
– Augustine
Truth | God
We want to reach the kingdom of God, but we don’t want to travel by way of death. And yet there stands Necessity saying: ‘This way, please.’ Do not hesitate, man, to go this way, when this is the way that God came to you.
– Augustine
Death
Where your pleasure is, there is your treasure; Where your treasure is, there is your heart; Where your heart is, there is your happiness.
– Augustine
Wealth | The Heart | Happiness
There is a joy which is not given to the ungodly, but to those who love Thee for Thine own sake, whose joy Thou Thyself art. And this is the happy life, to rejoice to Thee, of Thee, for Thee; this it is, and there is no other.
– Augustine
Joy
A man may lose the good things of this life against his will; but if he loses the eternal blessings, he does so with his own consent.
– Augustine
Blessings | Eternity
The Bible is shallow enough for a child not to drown, yet deep enough for an elephant to swim.
– Augustine
The Bible
The so-called innocence of children is more a matter of weakness of limb, than purity of heart.
– Augustine
Children
The purpose of all wars, is peace.
– Augustine
Peace | War
God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you.
– Augustine
Contentment | God | Rest
Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others.
– Augustine
Charity | Stewardship
Love, and do what you will.
– Augustine
Love
Though the light shines on things unclean, yet it is not thereby defiled.
– Augustine
Truth | Light
A thing is not necessarily true because badly uttered, nor false because spoken magnificently.
– Augustine
Truth
Thou must be emptied of that wherewith thou art full, that thou mayest be filled with that whereof thou art empty.
– Augustine
Holiness
Beauty is indeed a good gift of God; but that the good may not think it a great good, God dispenses it even to the wicked.
– Augustine
Good and Evil | Beauty
Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance.
– Augustine
Humility | Virtue
Love, and do what you like.
– Augustine
Love | Philosophy
To be assured of our salvation is no arrogant stoutness. It is faith. It is devotion. It is not presumption. It is God’s promise.
– Augustine
Assurance
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.
– Augustine
Scripture | The Gospel | Selfishness
Grant what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt.
– Augustine
Philosophy
God is not a deceiver, that He should offer to support us, and then, when we lean upon Him, should slip away from us.
– Augustine
God
With their doctrine they build, and with their lives they destroy.
– Augustine
Preaching | Hypocrisy | Doctrine
The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.
– Augustine
Books | Reading
By faithfulness we are collected and wound up into unity within ourselves, whereas we had been scattered abroad in multiplicity.
– Augustine
Patience | Faithful | Unity
Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord; and our heart is restless until it rests in Thee.
– Augustine
At times one hesitates to reprove or admonish evil-doers, either because one seeks a more favorable moment or fears his rebuke might make them worse, and further, discourage weak brethren from seeking to lead a good and holy life, or turn them aside from the faith. In such circumstances forbearance is not prompted by selfish considerations but by well advised charity.
– Augustine
Apathy
Nothing whatever pertaining to godliness and real holiness can be accomplished without grace.
– Augustine
Godliness | Holiness
Is it any merit to abstain from wine if one is intoxicated with anger?
– Augustine
Anger
And He departed from our sight that we might return to our heart, and there find Him. For He departed, and behold, He is here.
– Augustine
Jesus | The Heart
What you are must always displease you, if you would attain to that which you are not.
– Augustine
Achievement
Sin comes when we take a perfectly natural desire or longing or ambition and try desperately to fulfill it without God. Not only is it sin, it is a perverse distortion of the image of the Creator in us. All these good things, and all our security, are rightly found only and completely in Him.
– Augustine
Sin | Security
No eulogy is due to him who simply does his duty and nothing more.
– Augustine
Death
Drunkenness is a flattering devil, a sweet poison, a pleasant sin; whosoever has it, has not himself.
– Augustine
Drunkenness
If thou sin, the word of God is thy adversary. It is the adversary of thy will till it become the author of thy salvation.
– Augustine
Scripture | Salvation
Order your soul; reduce your wants; live in charity; associate in Christian community; obey the laws; trust in Providence.
– Augustine
Theology | Providence | Community
This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfections.
– Augustine
Character
Hear the other side.
– Augustine
Discretion
Lord, make me chaste – but not yet. Give me chastity and continence, but not yet. O Lord, help me to be pure, but not yet.
– Augustine
Habits
Salvation is God’s way of making us real people.
– Augustine
Salvation
O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams.
– Augustine
The Holy Spirit | Cheerfulness | The Heart
Do you wish to be great? Then begin by being. Do you desire to construct a vast and lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humility. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation.
– Augustine
Humility
Disturbers are to be rebuked, the low spirited to be encouraged, the infirm to be supported, objectors confuted, the treacherous guarded against, the unskilled taught, the lazy aroused, the contentious restrained, the haughty repressed, the poor relieved, the oppressed liberated, the good approved, the evil borne with, and all are to be loved!
– Augustine
Conviction
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.
– Augustine
Children | Creation
There is no possible source of evil except good.
– Augustine
Good and Evil
I found thee not, O Lord, without, because I erred in seeking thee without that wert within.
– Augustine
The Holy Spirit
Every saint is God’s temple, and he who carries His temple about him, may go to prayer when he pleaseth.
– Augustine
Christians
Forgiveness is the remission of sins. For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again.
– Augustine
Forgiveness | Salvation
Should you ask me what is the first thing in religion; I should reply that the first, second, and third thing therein is humility.
– Augustine
Humility
Clean and unclean birds, the dove and the raven, are yet in the ark.
– Augustine
Good and Evil
When large numbers of people share their joy in common, the happiness of each is greater because each adds fuel to the other’s flame.
– Augustine
Happiness | Joy
God chooses us, not because we believe, but that we may believe.
– Augustine
Believing
Breath in me, O Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy. Act in me, O Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy. Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit, that I love but what is holy. Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy. Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit, that I always may be holy.
– Augustine
The Holy Spirit
The law orders; grace supplies the power of acting.
– Augustine
Grace
Whomsoever the last day of his own life finds unprepared, this last day will find unprepared also.
– Augustine
Death
The sufficiency of my merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient.
– Augustine
Grace
No one is really happy merely because he has what he wants, but only if he wants things he ought to want.
– Augustine
Happiness
Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.
– Augustine
Virtue | Character
In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?
– Augustine
Justice
Involuntary ignorance is not charged against you as a fault; but your fault is this—you neglect to inquire into the things you are ignorant of.
– Augustine
Ignorance
It is human to err, but it is devilish to remain willfully in error.
– Augustine
Habits
Man was added to Him, God not lost to Him; He emptied Himself not by losing what He was, but by taking to Him what He was not.
– Augustine
Redemption
If two friends ask you to judge a dispute, don’t accept, because you will lose one friend; on the other hand, if two strangers come with the same request, accept, because you will gain one friend.
– Augustine
Friendship | Judging
Fear is the response of the human heart when its one thing is threatened.
– Augustine
Fear
Sin is believing the lie that you are self-created, self-dependent and self-sustained.
– Augustine
Self-esteem
God would never permit evil, if He could not bring good out of evil.
– Augustine
Good and Evil
Lord, who art always the same, give that I know myself, give that I know Thee.
– Augustine
Worship
Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.
– Augustine
Charity
We are certainly in a common class with the beasts; every action of animal life is concerned with seeking bodily pleasure and avoiding pain.
– Augustine
Life Animals
What can be more excellent than prayer; what is more profitable to our life; what sweeter to our souls; what more sublime, in the course of our whole life, than the practice of prayer!
– Augustine
Prayer