All Time Famous Saint Augustine Quotes

Saint Augustine (354-430 AD) was a prolific bishop, philosopher, and theologian who deeply influenced Western Christianity and thought. He lived in the late Roman Empire, serving as Bishop of Hippo Regius (present-day Algeria).

Impact:

Theology: He developed a system addressing key concepts like original sin, grace, and the Trinity, shaping later Christian understanding.
Philosophy: Influenced by Greek thinkers like Plato and Aristotle, he integrated philosophy into his Christian worldview, establishing Christian philosophy as a distinct field.
Church History: His writings offer valuable insights into the early church, with his Confessions being a classic of Christian literature.
Politics: His City of God explored the relationship between earthly and heavenly realms, influencing various political traditions.
Legacy: Though interpretations continue, Augustine’s lasting impact as a pivotal figure in Western thought is undeniable.

Saint Augustine Quotes

1. “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”
— Saint Augustine

2. “Our heart is restless until it rests in You.”
— Saint Augustine

3. “To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement.”
— Saint Augustine

4. “Trust the past to the mercy of God, the present to His love, and the future to His providence.”
— Saint Augustine

5. “Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.”
— Saint Augustine

6. “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.”
— Saint Augustine

7. “Patience is the companion of wisdom.”
— Saint Augustine

8. “Because God has made us for Himself, our hearts are restless until they rest in Him.”
— Saint Augustine

9. “Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.”
— Saint Augustine

10. “Without God, we cannot. Without us, God will not.”
— Saint Augustine

11. “There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.”
— Saint Augustine

12. “Take care of your body as if you were going to live forever; and take care of your soul as if you were going to die tomorrow.”
— Saint Augustine

13. “God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.”
— Saint Augustine

14. “It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.”
— Saint Augustine

15. “You are what you love.”
— Saint Augustine

16. “Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.”
— Saint Augustine

17. “The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.”
— Saint Augustine

18. “Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved.”
— Saint Augustine

19. “To sing is to pray twice.”
— Saint Augustine

20. “Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.”
— Saint Augustine

21. “God provides the wind, Man must raise the sail.”
— Saint Augustine

22. “There is no love without hope, no hope without love, and neither love nor hope without faith.”
— Saint Augustine

23. “Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient and ever new! Late have I loved you! And, behold, you were within me, and I out of myself, and there I searched for you.”
— Saint Augustine

24. “Education is the food of youth, the delight of old age, the ornament of prosperity, the refuge and comfort of adversity, and the provocation to grace in the soul.”
— Saint Augustine

25. “There is a God-shaped vacuum in every man that only Christ can fill.”
— Saint Augustine

26. “Charity is the root of all good works.”
— Saint Augustine

27. “Bad times, hard times, this is what people keep saying; but let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times: Such as we are, such are the times.”
— Saint Augustine

28. “You aspire to great things? Begin with the little ones.”
— Saint Augustine

29. “Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.”
— Saint Augustine

30. “The measure of love is to love without measuring.”
— Saint Augustine

31. “He who has God has everything; he who has everything but God has nothing.”
— Saint Augustine

32. “If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.”
— Saint Augustine

33. “The cost of obedience is small compared with the cost of disobedience.”
— Saint Augustine

34. “What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.”
— Saint Augustine

35. “In my deepest wound I saw your glory, and it dazzled me.”
— Saint Augustine

36. “God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination.”
— Saint Augustine

37. “A Christian is: a mind through which Christ thinks, a heart through which Christ loves, a voice through which Christ speaks, and a hand through which Christ helps.”
— Saint Augustine

38. “He who is filled with love is filled with God himself.”
— Saint Augustine

39. “Peace in society depends upon peace in the family.”
— Saint Augustine

40. “The reward of patience Is patience.”
— Saint Augustine

41. “Love God, then do what you will.”
— Saint Augustine

42. “God has no need of your money, but the poor have. You give it to the poor, and God receives it.”
— Saint Augustine

43. “Fortitude is the disposition of soul which enables us to despise all inconveniences and the loss of things not in our power.”
— Saint Augustine

44. “Do what you can and pray for what you cannot yet do.”
— Saint Augustine

45. “Love, and do what you will. If you keep silence, do it out of love. If you cry out, do it out of love. If you refrain from punishing, do it out of love.”
— Saint Augustine

46. “Where your pleasure is, there is your treasure: where your treasure, there your heart; where your heart, there your happiness.”
— Saint Augustine

47. “Where I found truth, there found I my God, who is the truth itself.”
— Saint Augustine

48. “Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.”
— Saint Augustine

49. “It is no advantage to be near the light if the eyes are closed.”
— Saint Augustine

50. “Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.”
— Saint Augustine

51. “God gives where he finds empty hands.”
— Saint Augustine

52. “Let your old age be childlike, and your childhood like old age; that is, so that neither may your wisdom be with pride, nor your humility without wisdom.”
— Saint Augustine

53. “The Holy Scriptures are our letters from home.”
— Saint Augustine

54. “God’s love is unconditional. Be sure that yours is too!”
— Saint Augustine

55. “Desire only God, and your heart will be satisfied.”
— Saint Augustine

56. “In doing what we ought we deserve no praise, because it is our duty.”
— Saint Augustine

57. “Believe in order to Understand and Understand in order to Believe.”
— Saint Augustine

58. “Lust indulged became habit, and habit unresisted became necessity.”
— Saint Augustine

59. “The greatest evil is physical pain.”
— Saint Augustine

60. “Oh, God, to know you is life. To serve You is freedom. To praise you is the soul’s joy and delight. Guard me with the power of Your grace here and in all places. Now and at all times, forever. Amen.”
— Saint Augustine

61. “Punishment is justice for the unjust.”
— Saint Augustine

62. “This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfections.”
— Saint Augustine

63. “If you are silent, be silent out of love. If you speak, speak out of love.”
— Saint Augustine

64. “The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation.”
— Saint Augustine

65. “Tolle, lege: take up and read.”
— Saint Augustine

66. “Make me a captive Lord, then I shall be truly free.”
— Saint Augustine

67. “Christ is not valued at all, unless he is valued above all.”
— Saint Augustine

68. “Love and do what you want. If you stop talking, you will stop talking with love; if you shout, you will shout with love; if you correct, you will correct with love.”
— Saint Augustine

69. “To withhold forgiveness is to take poison and expect the unforgiven to die.”
— Saint Augustine

70. “What grace is meant to do is to help good people, not to escape their sufferings, but to bear them with a stout heart, with a fortitude that finds its strength in faith.”
— Saint Augustine

71. “Never judge a philosophy by its abuse.”
— Saint Augustine

72. “Whatever skills I have acquired, whatever gifts I have been given, I place them at Your service.”
— Saint Augustine

73. “Don’t go outside; get back to yourself, in the inner man lies the Truth.”
— Saint Augustine

74. “Two works of mercy set a person free: Forgive and you will be forgiven, and give and you will receive.”
— Saint Augustine

75. “In what is necessary, unity; in what is not necessary, liberty and in all things charity.”
— Saint Augustine

76. “Love and say it with your life.”
— Saint Augustine

77. “Trials and tribulations offer us a chance to make reparation for our past faults and sins. On such occasions the Lord comes to us like a physician to heal the wounds left by our sins. Tribulation is the divine medicine.”
— Saint Augustine

78. “God judged it better to bring good out of evil than to suffer no evil to exist.”
— Saint Augustine

79. “It is love that asks, that seeks, that knocks, that finds, and that is faithful to what it finds.”
— Saint Augustine

80. “When God is our strength, it is strength indeed; when our strength is our own, it is only weakness.”
— Saint Augustine

81. “The law detects, grace alone conquers sin.”
— Saint Augustine

82. “If God is, why is there evil? But if God is not, why is there good?”
— Saint Augustine

83. “God is not greater if you reverence Him, but you are greater if you serve Him.”
— Saint Augustine

84. “God bestows more consideration on the purity of the intention with which our actions are performed than on the actions themselves.”
— Saint Augustine

85. “God is always trying to give good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive them.”
— Saint Augustine

86. “There is no salvation outside the church.”
— Saint Augustine

87. “Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance.”
— Saint Augustine

88. “We count on God’s mercy for our past mistakes, on God’s love for our present needs, on God’s sovereignty for our future.”
— Saint Augustine

89. “Purity of soul cannot be lost without consent.”
— Saint Augustine

90. “It seems to me that an unjust law is no law at all.”
— Saint Augustine

91. “Grant what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt.”
— Saint Augustine

92. “Carnal lust rules where there is no love of God.”
— Saint Augustine

93. “Mary heard God’s word and kept it, and so she is blessed. She kept God’s truth in her mind, a nobler thing than carrying his body in her womb.”
— Saint Augustine

94. “Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.”
— Saint Augustine

95. “God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.”
— Saint Augustine

96. “Since God is the highest good, he would not allow any evil to exist in his works unless his omnipotence and goodness were such as to bring good even out of evil.”
— Saint Augustine

97. “No one reaches the kingdom of Heaven except by humility.”
— Saint Augustine

98. “For grace is given not because we have done good works, but in order that we may be able to do them.”
— Saint Augustine

99. “To my God a heart of flame; To my fellow man a heart of love; To myself a heart of steel.”
— Saint Augustine

100. “The Bible was composed in such a way that as beginners mature, its meaning grows with them.”
— Saint Augustine

101. “God is best known in not knowing him.”
— Saint Augustine

102. “Don’t hold yourselves cheap, seeing that the creator of all things and of you estimates your value so high, so dear, that he pours out for you every day the most precious blood of his only-begotten Son.”
— Saint Augustine

103. “Symbols are powerful because they are the visible signs of invisible realities.”
— Saint Augustine

104. “Learn to dance, so when you get to heaven the angels know what to do with you.”
— Saint Augustine

105. “Whole prayer is nothing but love.”
— Saint Augustine

106. “Humility is first, second and third in Christianity.”
— Saint Augustine

107. “What do I love when I love my God?”
— Saint Augustine

108. “Do you wish to be great? Then begin by being. Do you desire to construct a vast and lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humility. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation.”
— Saint Augustine

109. “Two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self; the heavenly by the love of God.”
— Saint Augustine

110. “Father, I am seeking: I am hesitant and uncertain, but will you, O God, watch over each step of mine and guide me.”
— Saint Augustine

111. “Since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special attention to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstances, are brought into closer connection with you.”
— Saint Augustine

112. “Doubt is but another element of faith.”
— Saint Augustine

113. “You say to me ‘Show me your God.’ I answer you, ‘Everything you see in your heart that might sadden God, remove.’”
— Saint Augustine

114. “I would not believe in the Gospel if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so.”
— Saint Augustine

115. “The good man, though a slave, is free; the wicked, though he reigns, is a slave, and not the slave of a single man, but- what is worse- the slave of as many masters as he has vices.”
— Saint Augustine

116. “He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent.”
— Saint Augustine

117. “Let us therefore yield ourselves and bow to the authority of the Holy Scriptures, which can neither err nor deceive.”
— Saint Augustine

118. “If we tread our vices under our feet, we make of them a ladder by which to rise to higher things.”
— Saint Augustine

119. “God does not expect us to submit our faith to him without reason, but the very limits of our reason make faith a necessity.”
— Saint Augustine

120. “Nothing conquers except truth and the victory of truth is love.”
— Saint Augustine

121. “Let us understand that God is a physician, and that suffering is a medicine for salvation, not a punishment for damnation.”
— Saint Augustine

122. “God’s faithful servant has no desire for people to say or to give to him, or what he likes to hear or see, for his first and greatest aim is to hear what is most pleasing to God.”
— Saint Augustine

123. “Keep on adding, keep on walking, keep on progressing: do not delay on the road, do not go back, do not deviate.”
— Saint Augustine

124. “It is a sin to judge any man by his post.”
— Saint Augustine

125. “If you are suffering from a bad man’s injustice, forgive him lest there be two bad men.”
— Saint Augustine

126. “Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.”
— Saint Augustine

127. “How can the past and future be, when the past no longer is, and the future is not yet? As for the present, if it were always present and never moved on to become the past, it would not be time, but eternity.”
— Saint Augustine

128. “Lord, thou madest us for thyself, and we can find no rest till we find rest in thee.”
— Saint Augustine

129. “Order your soul; reduce your wants; live in charity; associate in Christian community; obey the laws; trust in Providence.”
— Saint Augustine

130. “Sin is believing the lie that you are self-created, self-dependent and self-sustained.”
— Saint Augustine

131. “If you understood him, it would not be God.”
— Saint Augustine

132. “You never go away from us, yet we have difficulty in returning to You. Come, Lord, stir us up and call us back. Kindle and seize us. Be our fire and our sweetness. Let us love. Let us run.”
— Saint Augustine

133. “Go forth on your path, as it exists only through your walking.”
— Saint Augustine

134. “A Christian should be an Alleluia from head to foot.”
— Saint Augustine

135. “The greatest kindness one can render to any man is leading him to truth.”
— Saint Augustine

136. “Let us sing a new song, not with our lips, but with our lives.”
— Saint Augustine

137. “The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works.”
— Saint Augustine

138. “O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams.”
— Saint Augustine

139. “People travel to marvel at the mountains, seas, rivers and stars and they pass right by themselves without astonishment.”
— Saint Augustine

140. “He who devoutly hears holy Mass will receive a great vigor to enable him to resist mortal sin, and there shall be pardoned to him all venial sins which he may have committed up to that hour.”
— Saint Augustine

141. “He loves Thee too little, who loves anything together with Thee, which he loves not for Thy sake.”
— Saint Augustine

142. “Idolatry is worshipping anything that ought to be used, or using anything that is meant to be worshipped.”
— Saint Augustine

143. “Women should not be enlightened or educated in any way. They should, in fact, be segregated as they are the cause of hideous and involuntary erections in holy men.”
— Saint Augustine

144. “Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a teardrop.”
— Saint Augustine

145. “He was created of a mother whom He created. He was carried by hands that He formed. He cried in the manger in wordless infancy. He, the Word, without whom all human eloquence is mute.”
— Saint Augustine

146. “What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know.”
— Saint Augustine

147. “Do not be afraid to throw yourself on the Lord! He will not draw back and let you fall! Put your worries aside and throw yourself on him; He will welcome you and heal you.”
— Saint Augustine

148. “When I am completely united to You, there will be no more sorrow or trials; entirely full of You, my life will be complete.”
— Saint Augustine

149. “I believe in order to understand.”
— Saint Augustine

150. “The dove loves when it quarrels; the wolf hates when it flatters.”
— Saint Augustine

151. “If you are pleased with what you are, you have stopped already. If you say, “It is enough,” you are lost. Keep on walking, moving forward, trying for the goal.”
— Saint Augustine

152. “Oh, beauty, ever ancient and ever new.”
— Saint Augustine

153. “The entire life of a good Christian is in fact an exercise of holy desire. You do not yet see what you long for, but the very act of desiring prepares you, so that when he comes you may see and be utterly satisfied.”
— Saint Augustine

154. “The purpose of all wars, is peace.”
— Saint Augustine

155. “There is no greater invitation to love than loving first.”
— Saint Augustine

156. “All truth and understanding is a result of a divine light which is God Himself.”
— Saint Augustine

157. “You have enemies. For who can live on this earth without them? Take heed to yourselves: love them. In no way can your enemy so hurt you by his violence, as you hurt yourself if you love him not.”
— Saint Augustine

158. “The Devil invented gambling.”
— Saint Augustine

159. “He who loves the coming of the Lord is not he who affirms that it is far off, nor is it he who says it is near, but rather he who, whether it be far off or near, awaits it with sincere faith, steadfast hope, and fervent love.”
— Saint Augustine

160. “Beware of despairing about yourself: you are commanded to put your trust in God, and not in yourself.”
— Saint Augustine

161. “Two criminals were crucified with Christ. One was saved; do not despair. One was not; do not presume.”
— Saint Augustine

162. “Sin is looking for the right thing in the wrong place.”
— Saint Augustine

163. “Try to acquire the virtues you believe lacking in your brothers. Then you will no longer see their defects, for you will no longer have them yourself.”
— Saint Augustine

164. “Attract them by the way you live.”
— Saint Augustine

165. “Moral character is assessed not by what a man knows but by what he loves.”
— Saint Augustine

166. “Repentant tears wash out the stain of guilt.”
— Saint Augustine

167. “For what is the self-complacent man but a slave to his own self-praise.”
— Saint Augustine

168. “Beauty is the brilliance of truth.”
— Saint Augustine

169. “Yet we must say something when those who say the most are saying nothing.”
— Saint Augustine

170. “If you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. For where you are pleased with yourself there you have remained. Keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing.”
— Saint Augustine

171. “The Sacraments are the salvation of those who use them rightly, and the damnation of those who misuse them.”
— Saint Augustine

172. “We take for granted the slow miracle whereby water in the irrigation of a vineyard becomes wine. It is only when Christ turns water into wine, in a quick motion, as it were, that we stand amazed.”
— Saint Augustine

173. “One loving heart sets another on fire.”
— Saint Augustine

174. “Peace is not sought in order to provoke war, but war is waged in order to attain peace.”
— Saint Augustine

175. “We must understand then, that even though God doesn’t always give us what we want, He always gives us what we need for our salvation.”
— Saint Augustine

176. “Will is to grace as the horse is to the rider.”
— Saint Augustine

177. “Do not say that you have chaste minds if you have unchaste eyes, because an unchaste eye is the messenger of an unchaste heart.”
— Saint Augustine

178. “Seek not abroad, for in the inner man dwells the truth.”
— Saint Augustine

179. “Should you ask me what is the first thing in religion, I should reply that the first, second, and third thing therein is humility.”
— Saint Augustine

180. “I count myself one of the number of those who write as they learn and learn as they write.”
— Saint Augustine

181. “We come to God by love and not by navigation.”
— Saint Augustine

182. “Any woman who does not give birth to as many children as she is capable is guilty of murder.”
— Saint Augustine

183. “We are too weak to discover the truth by reason alone.”
— Saint Augustine

184. “Fasting cleanses the soul, raises the mind, subjects one’s flesh to the spirit, renders the heart contrite and humble, scatters the clouds of concupiscence, quenches the fire of lust, and kindles the true light of chastity. Enter again into yourself.”
— Saint Augustine

185. “When regard for truth has been broken down or even slightly weakened, all things will remain doubtful.”
— Saint Augustine

186. “As the soul is the life of the body, so God is the life of the soul. As therefore the body perishes when the soul leaves it, so the soul dies when God departs from it.”
— Saint Augustine

187. “In order to discover the character of people we have only to observe what they love.”
— Saint Augustine

188. “Temperance is a disposition that restrains our desires for things which it is base to desire.”
— Saint Augustine

189. “I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful; but I have never read in either of them: Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden.”
— Saint Augustine

190. “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden.”
— Saint Augustine

191. “For what am I to myself without You, but a guide to my own downfall?”
— Saint Augustine

192. “He who denies the existence of God, has some reason for wishing that God did not exist.”
— Saint Augustine

193. “There is a joy which is not given to the ungodly, but to those who love Thee for Thine own sake, whose joy Thou Thyself art. And this is the happy life, to rejoice to Thee, of Thee, for Thee; this it is, and there is no other.”
— Saint Augustine

194. “Lord, teach me to know you, and to know myself.”
— Saint Augustine

195. “He that is jealous is not in love.”
— Saint Augustine

196. “Thus the good christian should beware of mathematicians and all those who make false prophecies, however much they may in fact speak the truth; lest, being in league with the devil, they may deceive errant souls into making common cause.”
— Saint Augustine

197. “Nothing whatever pertaining to godliness and real holiness can be accomplished without grace .”
— Saint Augustine

198. “The sole purpose of life is to gain merit for life in eternity.”
— Saint Augustine

199. “For God loves saving, not condemning, and therefore He is patient with bad people, in order to make good people out of bad people.”
— Saint Augustine

200. “God is not what you imagine or what you think you understand. If you understand you have failed.”
— Saint Augustine