Quotes from Saint Augustine

Augustine (354-430) was bishop of Hippo in North Africa. Having received a solid education and endowed with a spirit of rare intelligence, he realized a grandiose body of work. His famous works such as the Confessions and the City of God reveal his luminous thought and have nourished the faith, spirituality and philosophy of multitudes of people over the centuries. In his works, one can glean a number of very enlightening quotations on the way Saint Augustine conceived of life, death, happiness, and more.

Philosophy of Saint Augustine: Best Quotations

Life

"No one lives without love." Sermon

Love

“Love, and do what you want. If you keep silent, keep silent for love; if you speak, speak for love; if you correct, correct for love; if you forgive, forgive for love. Have in your heart the root of love, from this root can come out nothing but good." Sermons

"The measure of love is to love without measure." Sermons

"It is from love of self that the rule of love of neighbor draws its light." The City of God

“When love grows in you, beauty does the same. For love is the beauty of the soul.”

God

“But you were deeper than the depth of me and higher than the Most High of me." Confessions 

“Our God can never be corrupted, neither by his will, nor by necessity, nor by any unforeseen chance; because he is God, and what he wills for himself is good, and he is good." Confessions.

Time

"But perhaps one could say with truth that there are three times the present of things past the present of things present and the present of things future." Confessions

“What is Time? If no one asks me, I know. If I want to explain it to anyone who asks me, I don't know." Confessions

Faith and Reason

“Believe to deserve to understand. Faith must precede intelligence for intelligence to be the reward of faith." Sermons

Happiness

“A life of happiness, isn't it the thing that everyone wants and nobody in the world refuses? But where did we know it to want it so much? Where did we see it to be so in love with it?" Confessions

"Happiness is to continue to desire what we have." Sermons

Death

"Who would not back down from horror and choose death, if he were offered the choice between dying and becoming a child again!" The City of God

Tolerance

"By seeing everything, we end up enduring everything... By enduring everything we end up tolerating everything... By tolerating everything we end up accepting everything... By accepting everything, we end up approving everything.”

Spiritual Quotes of Saint Augustine

The Love of God

"Late I loved you, Beauty so old and so new, late I loved you! But look! You were inside me and I was outside myself! And I was looking for you outside; I was rushing into my ugliness on the grace of your creatures. You were with me, and I was not with you, kept away from you by those things that would not be, if they were not in you. You have called me, and your cry has forced my deafness; you have shone, and your brightness has cast out my blindness; you have exhaled your perfume, I have breathed it, and behold, I sigh for you; I have tasted you, and I am hungry for you, thirsty for you; you have touched me, and I have burned with ardor for the peace that you give." Confessions

Waiting and Desire

“The whole life of a true Christian is a holy desire. Undoubtedly, what you desire, you do not yet see: but desire makes you capable, when what you must see comes, of being fulfilled. Suppose you want to fill something in the shape of a pocket, and you know how much more you have to receive; you spread out that pocket, bag, or any similar thing; you know how large is that which you must put in, and you see that the pocket is small: in waiting, you increase its capacity. In the same way, God, by making one wait, expands desire; by making one desire, he expands the soul; by extending the soul, he makes it capable of receiving. Let us therefore desire, my brethren, because we must be filled." Sermon on the 1st Letter of John

The Return of Christ

"When Christ comes, and, as the Apostle Paul also says, will bring to light what is hidden in darkness, and will reveal the intentions of the hearts, that everyone may receive from God the praise which is due to him, then, with the presence of such a light of day, the lamps will no longer be necessary. The prophecy will no longer be read to us, the book of the Apostle will no longer be opened, we will no longer ask for the testimony of John, we will no longer need the Gospel itself. All the scriptures will be taken away from us, as they shone for us as lamps in the night of this world, that we may not dwell in darkness." Homilies on the Gospel of John

Time Spent Praying

"It is not forbidden or useless to pray for a long time, when one has the leisure, that is to say when this does not prevent other good and necessary occupations, although, in carrying out these, one must always pray, as I have said, by desire. For if one prays for a little while, it is not, as some think, a prayer of gossip. To speak abundantly is one thing, to love at length is another." Letter to Proba on Prayer