Inspirational Quotes by Augustine

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

“While therefore each one of us is trying to understand in the sacred writings what the writer meant by them, what harm if one accepts a meaning which You, Light of all true minds, show him to be in itself a true meaning, even if the author we are reading did not actually mean that by it: since his meaning also, though different from mine, is true?”

“The Incarnate Word has been spoken. It calls the soul back to its place of peace that cannot be disturbed and love that will never be disappointed.”

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

“Y si todas estas cosas que de Cristo se dicen fueran falsas, todo lo demás naufragaría en la mentira y no quedaría en los sagrados Libros ninguna esperanza de salvación para el género humano.”

“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.”

“The promise of satisfaction in worldly loves is an enduring lie that moves the soul to unfaithfulness from its proper lover.”

“Y la ambición, ¿qué busca, sino honores y gloria, siendo tú el único sobre todas las cosas digno de ser honrado y glorificado eternamente?”

“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 then is time? If no one asks me, I know: if I wish to explain it to one that asketh, I know not:”

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

“People are moved to wonder by mountain peaks,13 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. They”

“Even so, I could not have been wholly content to confine sexual union to acts intended to procreate children, as your law prescribes, Lord... 'It is good for a man not touch a woman' (I Cor. 7:1), and 'He who has no wife thinks on the things of God, how he can please God. But he who is joined in marriage thinks on the affairs of the world, how he can please his wife' (I Cor. 7:32-2)”

“Hence to be happy is nothing but not to be in need, that is, to be wise. But if you seek what wisdom is, reason has already explained and declared this as far as presently possible. For wisdom is nothing but the measure of the soul, that is, that by which the mind is liberated so that it neither runs over into too much nor falls short of fullness. For there is a running over into luxuries, tyrannies, acts of pride, and other such things whereby the souls of unrestrained and unhappy men think they get for themselves pleasure and power. But there is a falling short of fullness through baseness, fear, sorrow, passion, and other things, of whatever kind, whereby unhappy men even admit that they are unhappy.”

“This, therefore, is the complete satisfaction of souls, that is, the happy life: to know precisely and perfectly Him through whom you are led into the truth, the nature of the truth you enjoy, and the bond that connects you with the Supreme Measure! These three show to those who understand the one God, the one Substance, excluding the variety of all vain and superstitious images.”

“Discutamos, segundo as nossas forças, não sobre a glória, que é coisa leve e pueril, mas sobre a nossa própria vida e a esperança que temos de ser felizes (Contr. Acad. III, 9, 18)”

“For there is no single cause of evil; rather, everyone who does evil is the cause of his own evildoing. If you doubt this, recall what I said earlier: Evil deeds are punished by the justice of God. They would not be punished justly if they had not been performed voluntarily.”

“Without metaphysical freedom, the universe is just a divine puppet show. If there is to be any real creaturely goodness, any new and creative act of love, rather than the merely mechanical uncoiling of a wind-up universe, if there are to be any real decisions other than those made in the divine will, then there must be metaphysical freedom, and such freedom brings with it the possibility of evil as well as the promise of goodness.”

“Augustine, however, would point out that if you are your own boss, you are ipso facto your own slave. And it is not right to be ruled by what is equal to oneself. One should be ruled only by what is in every respect superior to oneself, and that is Truth, which Augustine identifies with God.”

“And I come to the fields and spacious palaces of my memory, where are the treasures of innumerable images, brought into it from things of all sorts perceived by the senses … Great is the power of memory, a fearful thing, O my God, a deep and boundless manifoldness; and this thing is the mind, and this am I myself … I will pass even beyond this power of mine which is called memory: yea, I will pass beyond it, that I may approach unto Thee, O sweet Light … Where then did I find Thee, that I might learn Thee? For in my memory Thou wert not, before I learned Thee. Where then did I find Thee, that I might learn Thee, but in Thee above me? Place there is none; we go backward and forward, and there is no place. Everywhere, O Truth, dost Thou give … all who ask counsel of Thee, from “Book X”