Inspirational Quotes by Augustine

“There is something in humility which, strangely enough, exalts the heart, and something in pride which debases it. This seems, indeed, to be contradictory, that loftiness should debase and lowliness exalt. But pious humility enables us to submit to what is above us; and nothing is more exalted above us than God; and therefore humility, by making us subject to God, exalts us."--De Civ. Dei, xiv. sec. 13.”

“Gregory observed that our Saviour had not styled us the sugar but the salt of the earth,”

“But Thou, being the Good, needing no good, art ever at rest, because Thou Thyself art Thy rest. And what man will teach man to understand this? Or what angel, an angel? Or what angel, a man? Let it be asked of Thee, sought in Thee, knocked for at Thee; so, even so shall it be received, so shall it be found, so shall it be opened. [1433] Amen.  ”

“We are not delivered from offences, but it is equally true that we are not deprived of our refuge; our griefs do not cease, but our consolations are equally abiding.”

“Observe how often these two qualities, loving mercy and truth, are joined together in the holy Scriptures. For in His loving mercy He called sinners, and in His truth He judgeth those who when called refused to come.”

“the princes of the city of Christ patiently wait for the time of a blessedness that is not fallacious.”

“La différence de ceux qui sont frappés demeure dans la ressemblance des maux qui les frappent ; et pour être exposés aux mêmes tourments, la vertu et le vice ne se confondent pas. Car, comme un même feu fait briller l’or et noircir la paille, comme un même fléau écrase le chaume et purifie le froment, ou encore, comme le marc ne se mêle pas avec l’huile, quoiqu’il soit tiré de l’olive par le même pressoir, ainsi un même malheur, venant à tomber sur les bons et sur les méchants, éprouve, purifie et fait resplendir les uns, tandis qu’il damne, écrase et anéantit les autres. C’est pour cela qu’en une même affliction, les méchants blasphèment contre Dieu, les bons, au contraire, le prient et le bénissent : tant il importe de considérer, non les maux qu’on souffre, mais l’esprit dans lequel on les subit ; car le même mouvement qui tire de la boue une odeur fétide, imprimé à un vase de parfums, en fait sortir les plus douces exhalaisons.”

“With what destination in mind are you walking, endlessly, endlessly, on those hard paths of suffering? There's no rest where you're looking for it. Look for what you're looking for—but it's not there where you're looking. You're seeking a happy life in a land of death. It's not there. How can there be a happy life where there isn't even life?”

“Reason judges in one way, custom in another. Reason judges by the light of truth, so that by right judgment it subjects lesser things to greater. Custom is often swayed by agreeable habits, so that it esteems as greater what truth reveals as lower.”

“Every soul must pay back what it owes, either by using well what it received, or by losing what it was unwilling to use well.”

“You are surprised that the world is losing its grip, that the world is grown old? Think of a man: he is born, he grows up, he becomes old. Old age has its many complaints: coughing, shaking, failing eyesight, anxious, terribly tired. A man grows old; he is full of complaints. The world is old; it is full of pressing tribulations. . . . Do not hold onto the old man, the world; do not refuse to regain your youth in Christ, who says to you, ‘The world is passing away, the world is losing its grip, the world is short of breath. Do not fear. Thy youth shall be renewed as an eagle”

“Do not feel surprise at being schooled amid toil: you are being schooled for a wondrous destiny.”

“Indeed we also work, but we are only collaborating with God who works, for his mercy has gone before us. It has gone before us so that we may be healed, and follows us so that once healed, we may be given life; it goes before us so that we may be called, and follows us so that we may be glorified; it goes before us so that we may live devoutly, and follows us so that we may always live with God: for without him we can do nothing.”

“What is time? Who can explain this easily and briefly? Who can comprehend this even in thought so as to articulate the answer in words? Yet what do we speak of, in our familiar everyday conversation, more than of time? We surely know what we mean when we speak of it. We also know what is meant when we hear someone else talking about it. What then is time? Provided that no one asks me, I know. If I want to explain it to an inquirer, I do not know. But I confidently affirm myself to know that if nothing passes away, there is no past time, and if nothing arrives, there is no future time, and if nothing existed there would be no present time. Take the two tenses, past and future. How can they 'be' when the past is not now present and the future is not yet present? Yet if the present were always present, it would not pass into the past: it would not be time but eternity. If then, in order to be time at all, the present is so made that it passes into the past, how can we say that this present also 'is'? The cause of its being is that it will cease to be. So indeed we cannot truly say that time exists except in the sense that it tends toward non-existence.”

“Thou art every where, Whom no place encompasseth! and Thou alone art near, even to those that remove far from Thee. Let them then be turned, and seek Thee; because not as they have forsaken their Creator, hast Thou forsaken Thy creation.”

“Idling of our elders is called business; the idling of boys, though quite like it, is punished by those same elders, and no one pities either the boys or the men.”

“People are moved to wonder by mountain peaks, by vast waves of the sea, by broad waterfalls on rivers, by the all-embracing extent of the ocean, by the revolutions of the stars. But in themselves they are uninterested.”

“But whosoever recount his true merits to Thee, what is it that he recounts to Thee but Thine own gifts? Oh, if men would know themselves to be men...”

“Yet when it happens to me that the music moves me more than the subject of the song, I confess myself to commit a sin deserving punishment, and then I would prefer not to have heard the singer.”

“Come, O Lord, and stir our hearts. Call us back to yourself. Kindle your fire in us.”