Quotations from St. Augustine
The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.
Patience is the companion of wisdom.
Love is the beauty of the soul.
Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.
The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.
The measure of love is to love without measure.
Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.
Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.
Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.
God has no need for your money; He wants your heart.
You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you.
The good man, though a slave, is free; the wicked, though he reigns, is a slave.
Love, and do what you will.
Trust the past to God’s mercy, the present to God’s love, and the future to God’s providence.
The world is a great book; those who never move from their hometowns read only one page.
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.
Our hearts are restless until they find rest in you.
People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering.
The just man is not the product of a day, but of a long life.
The world is full of good things, but the best thing in it is a good person.
Pray as if everything depends on God and work as if everything depends on you.
The purpose of all wars is peace.
He loves Thee too little who loves anything together with Thee, which he loves not for Thy sake.
Charity creates unity, humility separates it.
Grant what you command, and command what you will.
O God, help me know myself, help me know you.
Beauty grows in you to the extent that love grows, because charity itself is the soul’s beauty.
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.
Solomon was divinely instructed to found a church for the name of the Lord, but those who succeed him know not why they build it; for they build it for the name of money.
Let us seek our country, where we are warriors, not fight for it, where we are soldiers.
If you understand it, it isn’t God.
There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.
In loving me, you made me lovable.
He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent.
Unreasonable haste is the direct road to error.
Our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee, and they will not find rest until they find it in Thee.
The best and highest employment of a free intelligence is to learn to acknowledge and love the truth which you think you see.
Men go abroad to admire the heights of mountains, the mighty billows 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.
Beauty will save the world.
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.
The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works.
To wisdom belongs the intellectual apprehension of things eternal; to knowledge, the rational apprehension of things temporal.
Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you.
Understand that we do not pray in order to change God’s will but to change ourselves.
Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient and ever new! Late have I loved you! And, behold, you were within me, and I out of myself, and there I searched for you.
Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.
God does not delay to hear our prayers because he has no mind to give; but that, by enlarging our desires, he may give us a fit opportunity for receiving.
I was not yet in love, yet I loved to love… I sought what I might love, in love with loving.
To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement.
The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.