Augustine of Hippo

“Some things are to be enjoyed, others to be used, and there are others to be enjoyed and used.”

— Augustine of Hippo

“So the will's desire for death is not a desire for nonexistence, but a desire for peace. When someone wrongly believes that…

— Augustine of Hippo

“And what did it profit me, that all the books I could procure of the so-called liberal arts, I, the vile slave…

— Augustine of Hippo

“The Greeks think they justly honor players, because they worship the gods who demand plays; the Romans, on the other hand, do…

— Augustine of Hippo

“If you find physical pleasure in earthly experiences, use the occasion to praise God for these gifts. Turn your love not on…

— Augustine of Hippo

“What is pride but an appetite for inordinate exaltation? Now, exaltation is inordinate when the soul cuts itself off from the very…

— Augustine of Hippo

“You are not blamed for your unwilling ignorance, but because you fail to ask about what you do not know.... For no…

— Augustine of Hippo

“the feeble mind of man did not presume to resist the clear evidence of truth, but yielded its infirmity to wholesome doctrines,…

— Augustine of Hippo

“Nonetheless the memory of you stayed with me, and I had no doubt whatever whom I ought to cling to, though I…

— Augustine of Hippo

“He (Scipio of Rome) did not consider that republic flourishing whose walls stand, but whose morals are in ruins. -- City of…

— Augustine of Hippo

“...The Devil would not have begun by an open and obvious sin to tempt man into doing something which God had forbidden,…

— Augustine of Hippo

“I held back my heart from all assent, fearing to fall headlong, and died all the more from that suspense.5 I wished…

— Augustine of Hippo

“In this world, therefore, the dominion of good men is profitable, not so much for themselves as for human affairs. But the…

— Augustine of Hippo

“If the things of this world delight you, praise God for them but turn your love away from them and give it…

— Augustine of Hippo

“For a prohibition always increases an illicit desire so long as the love of and joy in holiness is too weak to…

— Augustine of Hippo

“O Lord, turned me back upon myself. You took me from behind my own back, where I had placed myself because I…

— Augustine of Hippo

“Therefore, since we were too weak to find the truth by pure reason, and for that cause we needed the authority of…

— Augustine of Hippo

“What great good, then, we are to expect and hope from participating in his divinity, when even his distress calms us and…

— Augustine of Hippo

“You know how stupid and weak I am: teach me and heal me.”

— Augustine of Hippo

“For, Thou art righteous, O Lord, but we have sinned and committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and Thy hand is grown…

— Augustine of Hippo

“I looked with longing at honors, wealth, and marriage, and you laughed at me. Amidst such desires I suffered most bitter troubles,…

— Augustine of Hippo

“So too let him rejoice and delight in finding you who are beyond discovery rather than fail to find you by supposing…

— Augustine of Hippo

“Jesus says that faith itself is also the work of God.”

— Augustine of Hippo

“In seeking him they find him, and in finding they will praise him.”

— Augustine of Hippo

“If anyone shall set the authority of Holy Writ against clear and manifest reason, he who does this knows not what he…

— Augustine of Hippo