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Augustine of Hippo

154 quotes

• “Augustine, Augustine, quid quaeris? Putasne brevi immettere vasculo mare totum?”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Noli foras ire, in teipsum redi, in interiore homine habitat veritas. Et si tuam naturam mutabilem inveneris, trascende et teipsum.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Nowhere in the Gospel do we read that the Lord said: "I am sending you a Paraclete who will teach you about the course of the sun and moon." For He wanted to make Christians, not mathematicians.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: De actis cum Felice Manicheo {AD 404), translated as A Debate with Felix the Manichean, ¶1709, in The Faith of the Early Fathers Vol 3 : St. Augustine to the End of the Patristic Age by W.A. Jurgens, p. 88

• “The superfluities of the rich are the necessaries of the poor. They who possess superfluities, possess the goods of others.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Patrologia Latina, vol. 37, p. 1922

• “Cum dilectione hominum et odio vitiorum.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “An unjust law is no law at all.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “God judged it better to bring good out of evil than to suffer no evil to exist.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Ergo noli quaerere intelligere ut credas, sed crede ut intelligas.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Tractates on the Gospel of John; tractate XXIX on John 7:14-18, §6 A Select Library of the Nicene And Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church Volume VII by St. Augustine, chapter VII (1888) as translated by Philip S…

• “Spiritalis enim virtus Sacramenti ita est ut lux: et ab illuminandis pura excipitur, et si per immundos transeat, non inquinatur.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As quoted in Familiar Quotations, 9th edition (1892) edited by John Bartlett, p. 169

• “Patientia comes est sapientiae”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “If thou shouldst say, 'It is enough, I have reached perfection,' all is lost. For it is the function of perfection to make one know one's imperfection.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Quoted by Aldous Huxley, in The Perennial Philosophy (1945)

• “Timeo Dominum transeuntem”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Will is to grace as the horse is to the rider.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “If there is something more excellent than the truth, then that is God; if not, then truth itself is God.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Venite fratres, si vultis ut inseramini in vite; Dolor est cum vos videmus praecisos ita jacere. Numerate sacerdotes vel ab ipsa Petri sede; Et in ordine illo Patrum quis cui successit videte. Ipsa est petra, quam non vincunt superbae inferorum portae. (PL 43:30 ).”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Publications of the Catholic Truth Society (1895), Catholic Truth Society, London, vol. 24, p. 42.

• “Laudare te vult homo, aliqua portio creaturae tuae, et homo circumferens mortalitatem suam, circumferens testimonium peccati sui et testimonium, quia superbis resistis; et tamen laudare te vult homo, aliqua portio creaturae tuae. Tu excitas, ut laudare te delectet, quia fecisti nos ad te et inquietum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in te.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The weakness of little children's limbs is innocent, not their souls.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I became evil for no reason. I had no motive for my wickedness except wickedness itself. It was foul, and I loved it. I loved the self-destruction, I loved my fall, not the object for which I had fallen but my fall itself. My depraved soul leaped down from your firmament to ruin. I was seeking not to gain anything by shameful means, but shame for its own sake.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Nondum amabam, et amare amabam...quaerebam quid amarem, amans amare.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Et illa erant fercula, in quibus mihi esurienti te inferebatur sol et luna.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Already I had learned from thee that because a thing is eloquently expressed it should not be taken to be as necessarily true; nor because it is uttered with stammering lips should it be supposed false. Nor, again, is it necessarily true because rudely uttered, nor untrue because the language is brilliant. Wisdom and folly both are like meats that are wholesome and unwholesome, and courtly or simple words are like town-made or rustic vessels — both kinds of food may be served in either kind of dish.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “For it still seemed to me “that it is not we who sin, but some other nature sinned in us.” And it gratified my pride to be beyond blame, and when I did anything wrong not to have to confess that I had done wrong. … I loved to excuse my soul and to accuse something else inside me (I knew not what) but which was not I. But, assuredly, it was I, and it was my impiety that had divided me against myself. That sin then was all the more incurable because I did not deem myself a sinner.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: A. Outler, trans. (Dover: 2002), Book 5, Chapter 10, p. 77

• “The Catholic faith, … I now realized could be maintained without presumption. This was especially true after I had heard one or two parts of the Old Testament explained allegorically—whereas before this, when I had interpreted them literally, they had “killed” me spiritually.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: A. Outler, trans. (Dover: 2002), Book 5, Chapter 14, p. 81.

• “I read there [in "certain books of the Platonists"] that God the Word was born "not of flesh nor of blood, nor of the will of man, nor the will of the flesh, but of God." But, that "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" — I found this nowhere there.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “At ego adulescens miser ualde, miser in exordio ipsius adulescentiae, etiam petieram a te castitatem et dixeram, 'Da mihi castitatem et continentiam, sed noli modo.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “But the inner part is the better part; for to it, as both ruler and judge, all these messengers of the senses report the answers of heaven and earth and all the things therein, who said, "We are not God, but he made us." My inner man knew these things through the ministry of the outer man, and I, the inner man, knew all this — I, the soul, through the senses of my body. I asked the whole frame of earth about my God, and it answered, "I am not he, but he made me.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Sero te amavi, pulchritudo tam antiqua et tam nova, sero te amavi! et ecce intus eras et ego foris, et ibi te quaerebam.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: X, 27, as translated in Theology and Discovery: Essays in honor of Karl Rahner, S.J. (1980) edited by William J. Kelly

• “Da quod iubes, et iube quod vis. Imperas nobis … continentiam.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Mihi quaestio factus sum.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “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.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “There is another form of temptation, more complex in its peril. … It originates in an appetite for knowledge. … From this malady of curiosity are all those strange sights exhibited in the theatre. Hence do we proceed to search out the secret powers of nature (which is beside our end), which to know profits not, and wherein men desire nothing but to know.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Ecce respondeo dicenti, 'quid faciebat deus antequam faceret caelum et terram?' respondeo non illud quod quidam respondisse perhibetur, ioculariter eludens quaestionis violentiam: 'alta,' inquit, 'scrutantibus gehennas parabat.' aliud est videre, aliud ridere: haec non respondeo. libentius enim responderim, nescio quod nescio quam illud unde inridetur qui alta interrogavit et laudatur qui falsa respondit.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Quid est ergo tempus? Si nemo ex me quaerat, scio; si quaerenti explicare velim, nescio.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “You called and cried out loud and shattered my deafness. You were radiant and resplendent, you put to flight my blindness. You were fragrant, and I drew in my breath and now pant after you. I tasted you, and I feel but hunger and thirst for you. You touched me, and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is yours.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Deus, dona hominibus videre in parvo communes notitias rerum parvarum atque magnarum.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Wonderful is the depth of Thy oracles, whose surface is before us, inviting the little ones; and yet wonderful is the depth, O my God, wonderful is the depth. It is awe to look into it; and awe of honour, and a tremor of love. The enemies thereof I hate vehemently. Oh, if Thou wouldest slay them with Thy two-edged sword, that they be not its enemies! For thus do I love, that they should be slain unto themselves that they may live unto Thee.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Thus, in this universal catastrophe, the sufferings of Christians have tended to their moral improvement, because they viewed them with eyes of faith.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Ipsa libido dominandi, quae inter alia uitia generis humani meracior inerat uniuerso populo Romano, postea quam in paucis potentioribus uicit, obtritos fatigatosque ceteros etiam iugo seruitutis oppressit.Nam quando illa quiesceret in superbissimis mentibus, donec continuatis honoribus ad potestatem regiam perueniret? Honorum porro continuandorum facultas non esset, nisi ambitio praeualeret. Minime autem praeualeret ambitio, nisi in populo auaritia luxuriaque corrupto.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: as translated by H. Bettenson (1972), Book 1, Chapter 31, p. 42

• “The Heavenly City outshines Rome, beyond comparison. There, instead of victory, is truth; instead of high rank, holiness; instead of peace, felicity; instead of life, eternity.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Beauty is indeed a good gift of God; but that the good may not think it a great good, God dispenses it even to the wicked.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Quaerite, Donatistae, si nescitis, quaerite ab Ierusalem per terrena itinera in circuitu usque in Illyricum quot mansiones sint: si tot Ecclesias computemus, dicite quemadmodum per Africanas contentiones perire potuerunt. Ad Corinthios, ad Ephesios, ad Philippenses, ad Thessalonicenses, ad Colossenses vos solas Apostoli epistulas in lectione, nos autem et epistulas in lectione ac fide et ipsas Ecclesias in communione retinemus. PL 43, 414”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: A.C. Headlam regards these words as “the argument of the whole treatise” See, The Doctrine of the Church and Christian Reunion: Being the Bampton Lectures for the Year 1920, Rev. Arthur Cayley Headlam, D.D., London, Joh…

• “The Head and the body are Christ wholly and entirely. The Head is the only begotten Son of God, the body is His Church; the bridegroom and the bride, two in one flesh. All who dissent from the Scriptures concerning Christ, although they may be found in all places in which the Church is found, are not in the Church; and again all those who agree with the Scriptures concerning the Head, and do not communicate in the unity of the Church, are not in the Church”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Encyclical letter of Pope Leo XIII on the Unity of the Church, June 29, 1896, ch. 16, Publications of the Catholic Truth Society, 1896, London, Volume 30, p. 41.

• “The light will not shame you, if it shows you your own ugliness, and that ugliness so offends you that you perceive the beauty of the light.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: First Homily, as translated by John Burnaby (1955), p. 262

• “What is love's perfection? To love our enemies, and to love them to the end that they may be our brothers.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: First Homily, as translated by John Burnaby (1955), p. 266

• “In a quarrel for earth, turn not to earth.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: First Homily, as translated by John Burnaby (1955), p. 267

• “Shut out the evil love of the world, that you may be filled with the love of God. You are a vessel that was already full: you must pour away what you have, that you may take in what you have not.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Second Homily, as translated by John Burnaby (1955), p. 274

• “A man might say, "The things that are in the world are what God has made. ... Why should I not love what God has made?" ...Suppose, my brethren, a man should make for his betrothed a ring, and she should prefer the ring given her to the betrothed who made it for her, would not her heart be convicted of infidelity? ... God has given you all these things: therefore, love him who made them.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Second Homily, as translated by John Burnaby (1955), pp. 275-276

• “Let each look to his own heart: let him not keep hatred against his brother for any hard word; on account of earthly contention let him not become earth.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: First Homily, Paragraph 11, as translated by H. Browne, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 7 (1888)

• “Quantum in te crescit amor, tantum crescit pulchritudo; quia ipsa caritas est animae pulchritudo.”

  Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Ninth Homily, Paragraph 9, as translated by Boniface Ramsey (2008) Augustinian Heritage Institute

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