Inspirational Quotes by Augustine

“This power is that of my mind and is a natural endowment, but I myself cannot grasp the totality of what I am. Is”

“Como era miserável e como procesdestes para que sentisse a minha desgraça, naquele dia em que me preparava para declamar louvores ao imperador! Neles mentiria muito, e os que o sabiam apoiavam o mentiroso! Meu coração agitava-se com estes cuidados e ardia na febre dos pensamentos corrompidos, quando, ao passar por um bairro em Milão, reparei num pobre mendigo, já ébrio, julgo eu, mas humorístico e alegre. Gemi e falei aos meus amigos que me acompanhavam das muitas angústias provenientes das nossas loucuras. Com todos os esforços [...] só queríamos chegar à alegria segura, aonde já tinha chegado, primeiro de nós, aquele mendigo e aonde nunca talvez, chegaríamos. Dirigia-me para aquilo mesmo que ele já alcançara com poucas moedas pedidas de esmola, isto é, para a alegria e felicidade temporal, dando voltas e rodeios trabalhosos. Não possuía o ébrio, é certo a alegria verdadeira. Mas, com tais ambições, eu a buscava muito mais falsamente. Ele, com certeza, andava alegre e eu preocupado; ele vivia seguro e eu cheio de inquietações.”

“What therefore have I to do with men that they should hear my confessions, as if it were they who would cure all that is evil in me?9 Men are a race curious to know of other men’s lives, but slothful to correct their own.”

“Porque más vencido es el enemigo en aquel a quien más tiene preso y por cuyo medio tiene a otros muchos presos;”

“For you have imposed order, and so it is that the punishment of every disordered mind is its own disorder.”

“Let not the proud speak evil of me; because I meditate on my ransom,”

“El que no tiene mujer se preocupa de las cosas de Dios y de cómo agradarle; pero el que está unido en matrimonio se preocupa de las cosas del mundo y de cómo agradar a su mujer" (1Co 7, 28.32.33).”

“the poverty of human intelligence has plenty to say, for inquiry employs more words than the discovery of the solution;”

“O man, that which My Scripture saith, I say: and yet doth that speak in time; but time has no relation to My Word; because My Word exists in equal eternity with Myself. So the things which ye see through My Spirit, I see; like as what ye speak by My Spirit, I speak. And so when ye see those things in time, I see them not in time; as when ye speak in time, I speak them not in time.”

“¿Quién soy yo y qué clase de persona? ¿Qué no hubo de maldad… o en mis hechos o, si no en mis hechos, en mis dichos o, si no en mis dichos, en mi voluntad? Tú, en cambio, Señor, has sido bueno y misericorde4, que con tu diestra volvías la mirada a la profundidad de mi mente y evacuabas del fondo de mi corazón un abismo de corrupción. Y esto consistía en que no quisiera yo todo lo que quería y quisiera lo que Tú querías5. Pero ¿dónde estaba a lo largo de tantos años…? ¡Y de qué bajo y profundo escondrijo en un instante se hizo salir mi libre decisión, la de entregarte mi cerviz a tu grato yugo y mis hombros a tu ligera carga6, Cristo Jesús, protector mío y redentor mío7! ¡Cuán deleitoso me resultó de pronto carecer de los deleites de tantas bobadas, esas que había temido desaprovechar y era ya un gozo despachar. La verdad era que de mí las expulsabas Tú, verdadero y sumo deleite, y entrabas en su lugar, más dulce que todo placer —pero no para la carne y la sangre8—, más brillante que toda luz —pero más íntimo que todo secreto—, más sobresaliente que todo honor —pero no para los que sobresalen en sus personas—. Ya estaba mi espíritu libre de las devoradoras preocupaciones de ambicionar, y de adquirir, y de revolcarme, y de raspar la sarna de las pasiones. Y charlaba contigo, luminosidad mía, y riqueza mía, y salvación mía, Señor Dios mío.”

“Porque grande eres, Señor28, y vuelves tu mirada a las cosas rastreras29; las altivas, en cambio, las conoces de lejos, y no te acercas sino a los allanados de corazón30, y no te hallan los soberbios aunque con su curiosa pericia enumeren las estrellas y la arena31, y midan las constelaciones, e investiguen los caminos de los astros.”

“I would conceive matter absolutely without form; and I could not; for sooner could I imagine that not to be at all, which should be deprived of all form, than conceive a thing betwixt form and nothing, neither formed, nor nothing, a formless almost nothing”

“Vattene, e che tu possa vivere, perché non può morire il figlio di così tante lacrime”

“Is not the life of man upon earth all trial? Who wishes for troubles and difficulties? Thou commandest them to be endured, not to be loved. No man loves what he endures, though he love to endure. For though he rejoices that he endures, he had rather there were nothing for him to endure. In adversity I long for prosperity, in prosperity I fear adversity. What middle place is there betwixt these two, where the life of man is not all trial?”

“Of this I am certain, and I am not afraid to declare it from my heart, that if I had to write something to which the highest authority would be attributed, I would rather write it in such a way that my words would reinforce for each reader whatever truth he was able to grasp about these matters, than express a single idea so unambiguously as to exclude others, provided these did not offend me by their falsehood.”

“Angosta es la casa de mi alma para que vengas a ella: sea ensanchada por ti. Ruinosa está: repárala. Hay en ella cosas que ofenden tus ojos: lo confieso y lo sé; pero ¿quién la limpiará o a quién otro clamaré fuera de ti: De los pecados ocultos líbrame, Señor, y de los ajenos perdona a tu siervo?”

“This is my reply to anyone who asks: 'What was God doing before he made heaven and earth?' My reply is not that which someone is said to have given as a joke to evade the force of the question. He said: 'He was preparing hells for people who inquire into profundities.' It is one thing to laugh, another to see the point at issue, and this reply I reject. I would have preferred him to answer 'I am ignorant of what I do not know' rather than reply so as to ridicule someone who has asked a deep question and to win approval for an answer which is a mistake.”

“El bien que amáis proviene de él, pero sólo es bueno y suave en cuanto está en relación a él; pero justamente será amargo si, habiendo abandonado a Dios, injustamente se amare lo que de él procede.”

“The more a person is buffeted by such passions in his own life, the more he is moved by watching similar scenes on stage, although his state of mind is usually called misery when he is undergoing them himself and mercy6 when he shows compassion for others so afflicted.”

“For this my good from them, was good for them.”