“Patience is the companion of wisdom.”
Patientia comes est sapientiae
De Patientia http://www.augustinus.it/latino/pazienza/index.htm chapter 5
De Libero Arbitrio (388 - 395)
“Charity is the root of all good works.”
Caritas radix est omnium operum bonorum.
179A:5:1
Compare: Radix malorum est cupiditas; "greed is the root of all evil"
Sermons
Source: Confessions (c. 397), XII, 14
“To my God a heart of flame; To my fellow man a heart of love; To myself a heart of steel.”
Attributed to Augustine by many sources on line, but without an actual reference.
Disputed
“I know, but it is no longer I.”
Supposedly spoken by Augustine to his former concubine when she greeted him in the street, and when he ignored her said "Augustine, it is I!" Actually the quote (Sed ego non sum ego) is from De Poenitentia, Book II https://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/02m/0339-0397,_Ambrosius,_De_Poenitentia_Libri_Duo,_MLT.pdf, Chapter 10 by Ambrose. Ambrose relates it as a fable, not concerning Augustine, as explained here https://truthchallenge.one/blog/2014/11/17/did-st-augustine-say-this-to-a-prostitute/.
Misattributed
XIX, 24
The City of God (early 400s)
Temporibus enim nostris venit imperator in urbem Romam: ibi est templum imperatoris, ibi est sepulcrum piscatoris. Itaque ille ad deprecandam a Domino salutem imperator pius atque christianus non perrexit ad templum imperatoris superbum, sed ad sepulcrum piscatoris, ubi humilis ipsum piscatorem imitaretur, ut tunc respectus aliquid impetraret a Domino, quod superbiens imperator mereri non posset.
341:4; English from: Newly Discovered Sermons, 1997, Edmund Hill, tr., John E. Rotelle, ed., New City Press, New York, ISBN 1565481038 ISBN 9781565481039p. p. 286.
Sermons
“Inter faeces et urinam nascimur.”
We are born between feces and urine.
Attributed to a church father in Freud's Dora; Freud seems to have found it in an anatomy textbook by Josef Hyrtl (1867), where it was attributed to a church father; it may have been invented by Hyrtl. http://books.google.com/books?id=yw3tglAWxNAC&pg=RA1-PR72&lpg=RA1-PR72&dq=%22inter+urinas+et+faeces+nascimur%22+hyrtl&source=bl&ots=2sjrc-dGEs&sig=MDvt7D74M5JPozL1HKnN1FEmxbY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=vHJtUuneKJjb4APXq4CIAQ&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22inter%20urinas%20et%20faeces%20nascimur%22%20hyrtl&f=false For Hyrtl's quotation see http://books.google.com/books?id=qrEaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA820&dq=nascimur+inauthor:Hyrtl&hl=en&sa=X&ei=z3RtUru2LMzKkAfnm4DoAQ&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=nascimur%20inauthor%3AHyrtl&f=false.
Misattributed
Variant: We are born amid feces and urine.
“Singing is of a lover.”
Cantare amantis est.
Variant translation: To sing is characteristic of the lover.
336
Sermons
“So if you can manage it, you shouldn’t touch your partner, except for the sake of having children.”
Non ergo accedas, si potes, nisi liberorum procreandorum causa.
278:9; translation from: The works of Saint Augustine, John E. Rotelle, New City Press, 1994, ISBN 1565480600 ISBN 978-1565480605p. 55. http://books.google.com/books?id=5jswAAAAYAAJ&q=%22if+you+can+manage+it,+you+shouldn%E2%80%99t+touch+your+partner,+except+for+the+sake+of+having+children%22&dq=%22if+you+can+manage+it,+you+shouldn%E2%80%99t+touch+your+partner,+except+for+the+sake+of+having+children%22&hl=en&ei=dMJkTaOcCcGC8gah4IjmBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA
Sermons
“Do not despair: one thief was saved. Do not presume: one thief was damned.”
Attributed to St. Augustine in The Repentance of Robert Greene, Master of Arts http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/Greene/Repentance_Robert_Greene.pdf (1592) by Robert Greene.
Disputed
Variant: Do not despair; one of the thieves was saved. Do not presume; one of the thieves was damned.
“Christ is not valued at all unless He be valued above all.”
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 395
16A:11:2
Sermons
Second Homily, as translated by John Burnaby (1955), p. 274
Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John (414)
“The verdict of the world is conclusive.”
Securus iudicat orbis terrarum.
III, 24
Contra epistulam Parmeniani
“Love the sinner and hate the sin.”
Cum dilectione hominum et odio vitiorum.
Opera Omnia, Vol II. Col. 962, letter 211
Alternate translation: With love for mankind and hatred of sins (vices).
“The lust for power, which of all human vices was found in its most concentrated form in the Roman people as a whole, first established its victory in a few powerful individuals, and then crushed the rest of an exhausted country beneath the yoke of slavery.
For when can that lust for power in arrogant hearts come to rest until, after passing from one office to another, it arrives at sovereignty? Now there would be no occasion for this continuous progress if ambition were not all-powerful; and the essential context for ambition is a people corrupted by greed and sensuality.”
<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>
as translated by H. Bettenson (1972), Book 1, Chapter 31, p. 42
The City of God (early 400s)