Aurelius Augustinus Quotes: 183 Quotes on Patience, Love, Charity, and Spirituality for Self-Discovery and Growth

“The fellow who eggs you on to avenge yourself will rob you of what you were going to say – as we forgive our debtors. When you have forfeited that, all your sins will be held against you; absolutely nothing is forgiven.”

Aurelius Augustinus

57:11:3
Sermons

Forgiveness

“We are members of this Head, and this body cannot be decapitated. If the Head is in glory forever, so too are the members in glory forever, that Christ may be undivided forever.”

Aurelius Augustinus

Source: On the Mystical Body of Christ, p.433

Christ

“It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.”
Humilitas homines sanctis angelis similes facit, et superbia ex angelis demones facit.

Aurelius Augustinus

As quoted in Manipulus Florum (c. 1306), edited by Thomas Hibernicus, Superbia i cum uariis; also in Best Thoughts Of Best Thinkers: Amplified, Classified, Exemplified and Arranged as a Key to unlock the Literature of All Ages (1904) edited by Hialmer Day Gould and Edward Louis Hessenmueller
Disputed

Men , Angels , Change

“Give what you command, and command what you will. You impose continency on us.”
Da quod iubes, et iube quod vis. Imperas nobis … continentiam.

Aurelius Augustinus book Confessions

X, 29
Confessions (c. 397)

“He who disdained not to assume us unto Himself, did not disdain to take our place and speak our words, in order that we might speak His words.”

Aurelius Augustinus

Source: On the Mystical Body of Christ, p.421

“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.”

Aurelius Augustinus book Confessions

Confessions (c. 397)

Hunger , Peace , Feeling

“Anger is a weed; hate is the tree.”

Aurelius Augustinus

58
Sermons

Hate , Tree , Anger

“But I would not believe in the Gospel, had not the authority of the Catholic Church already moved me.”
Ego vero Evangelio non crederem, nisi me catholicae Ecclesiae commoveret auctoritas.

Aurelius Augustinus

Contra epistolam Manichaei

“Why, being dead, do you rely on yourself? You were able to die of your own accord; you cannot come back to life of your own accord. We were able to sin by ourselves, and we are still able to, nor shall we ever not be able to. Let our hope be in nothing but in God. Let us send up our sighs to him; as for ourselves, let us strive with our wills to earn merit by our prayers.”
Quid de se praesumit mortuus? Mori potuit de suo, reviviscere de suo non potest. Peccare per nos ipsos et potuimus et possumus nec tamen per nos resurgere aliquando poterimus. Spes nostra non sit, nisi in Deo 14. Ad illum gemamus, in illo praesumamus; quod ad nos pertinet, voluntate conemur, ut oratione mereamur.

Aurelius Augustinus

348A:4 Against Pelagius; English translation from: Newly Discovered Sermons, 1997, Edmund Hill, John E. Rotelle, New City Press, New York, ISBN 1565481038, 9781565481039 pp. 311-312. http://books.google.com/books?id=0XjYAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Let+us+send+up+our+sighs+to+him,+let+us+rely+on+him%22&dq=%22Let+us+send+up+our+sighs+to+him,+let+us+rely+on+him%22&hl=en&ei=Q75kTajHBoO8lQfW9cTaBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA Editor’s comment: “This sounds like a slightly Pelagian remark! But it is presumably intended to reverse what one may call the Pelagian order of things; and see the last few sections of the sermon, 9-15, on the effect of the heresy on prayer.” http://books.google.com/books?id=0XjYAAAAMAAJ&q=%22This+sounds+like+a+slightly+Pelagian+remark%22&dq=%22This+sounds+like+a+slightly+Pelagian+remark%22&hl=en&ei=9cBkTYenLsKqlAfs56mVBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA
Sermons

Life , God , Hope , Dead

“When I, who conduct this inquiry, love something, then three things are found: I, what I love, and the love itself. … There are, therefore three things: the lover, the beloved and the love.”

Aurelius Augustinus On the Trinity

(Cambridge: 2002), Book 9, Chapter 2, Section 2, p. 26
On the Trinity (417)

Love , Lovers

“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.”

Aurelius Augustinus book Confessions

A. Outler, trans. (Dover: 2002), Book 5, Chapter 14, p. 81.
Confessions (c. 397)

Faith , Parting

“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.”

Aurelius Augustinus book Confessions

X, 35
Confessions (c. 397)

Men , Secret , Search , Nature

“Let us rejoice and give thanks. Not only are we become Christians, but we are become Christ. My brothers, do you understand the grace of God that is given us? Wonder, rejoice, for we are made Christ! If He is the Head, and we the members, then together He and we are the whole man…. This would be foolish pride on our part, were it not a gift of his bounty. But this is what He promised by the mouth of the Apostle: “You are the body of Christ, and severally His members””

Aurelius Augustinus

1 Cor. 12:27
Source: On the Mystical Body of Christ, p. 415

God , Understanding , Christ , Parting

“On the words of Ps. 21:3: "O My God, I shall cry day by day, and Thou wilt not hear."”

Aurelius Augustinus

On the Mystical Body of Christ

God , Cry

“By faithfulness we are collected and wound up into unity within ourselves, whereas we had been scattered abroad in multiplicity.”

Aurelius Augustinus

As quoted in Footprints in Time : Fulfilling God's Destiny for Your Life (2007) by Jeff O'Leary, p. 223
Disputed

Faith

“The Apostle says: “I make up in my flesh what is lacking to the sufferings of Christ” (Col. 1:24). “I make up,” he tells us, “not what is lacking to my sufferings, but what is lacking to the sufferings of Christ; not in Christ’s flesh, but in mine. not in Christ's flesh, but in mine. Christ is still suffering, not in His own flesh which He took with Him into heaven, but in my flesh, which is still suffering on earth.””

Aurelius Augustinus

Source: On the Mystical Body of Christ, p.423

Suffering , Christ

“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.”

Aurelius Augustinus book Confessions

A. Outler, trans. (Dover: 2002), Book 5, Chapter 10, p. 77
Confessions (c. 397)

Love , Soul , Nature

“You can live, provided you live; that is, you can live for ever, provided you live a good life.”

Aurelius Augustinus

229H:3:2
Sermons

Life

“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.”

Aurelius Augustinus

216:3:1
Sermons

“The members of Christ, many though they be, are bound to one another by the ties of charity and peace under the one Head, who is our Saviour Himself, and form one man. Often their voice is heard in the Psalms as the voice of one man; the cry of one is as the cry of all, for all are one in One.”

Aurelius Augustinus

Source: On the Mystical Body of Christ, p.430

Peace , Christ , Cry

“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.”

Aurelius Augustinus book Confessions

II, 4
Confessions (c. 397)

Love , Soul , Motivation , Evil

“Nobody should ever doubt that in the washing of rebirth (Titus 3:5) absolutely all sins, from the least to the greatest, are altogether forgiven.”

Aurelius Augustinus

229E:2
Sermons

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

Aurelius Augustinus

Tractates on the Gospel of John; tractate XII on John 3:6-21, § 13 https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1701012.htm

Evil

“Rome has spoken; the case is concluded.”
Roma locuta est; causa finita est.

Aurelius Augustinus

131
Sermons

“To such a one my answer is that I have arrived at a nourishing kernel in that I have learnt that a man is not in any difficulty in making a reply according to his faith which he ought to make to those who try to defame our Holy Scripture. When they are able, from reliable evidence, to prove some fact of physical science, we shall show that it is not contrary to our Scripture. But when they produce from any of their books a theory contrary to Scripture, and therefore contrary to the Catholic faith, either we shall have some ability to demonstrate that it is absolutely false, or at least we ourselves will hold it so without any shadow of a doubt. And we will so cling to our Mediator, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” that we will not be led astray by the glib talk of false philosophy or frightened by the superstition of false religion. When we read the inspired books in the light of this wide variety of true doctrines which are drawn from a few words and founded on the firm basis of Catholic belief, let us choose that one which appears as certainly the meaning intended by the author. But if this is not clear, then at least we should choose an interpretation in keeping with the context of Scripture and in harmony with our faith. But if the meaning cannot be studied and judged by the context of Scripture, at least we should choose only that which our faith demands. For it is one thing to fail to recognize the primary meaning of the writer, and another to depart from the norms of religious belief. If both these difficulties are avoided, the reader gets full profit from his reading."”

Aurelius Augustinus

I, xxi, 41. Modern translation by J.H. Taylor
De Genesi ad Litteram

Wisdom , Books , Faith , Religion

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

Aurelius Augustinus book Enchiridion of Augustine

Enchiridion (c. 420 ), Ch. 27

God , Suffering , Evil

“Our bodies are shaped to bear children, and our lives are a working out of the processes of creation. All our ambitions and intelligence are beside that great elemental point.”

Aurelius Augustinus

Sometimes attributed to Augustine, but is from Phyllis McGinley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllis_McGinley, The Province of the Heart, "The Honor of Being a Woman" (1959).
Misattributed

Children , Intelligence

“And these were the dishes wherein to me, hunger-starven for thee, they served up the sun and the moon.”
Et illa erant fercula, in quibus mihi esurienti te inferebatur sol et luna.

Aurelius Augustinus book Confessions

III, 6
Confessions (c. 397)

Hunger , Sun

“I have become a question to myself.”
Mihi quaestio factus sum.

Aurelius Augustinus book Confessions

X, 33
Confessions (c. 397)

Question

“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.”

Aurelius Augustinus book Confessions

Variant: Men go abroad to admire the heights of mountains, the mighty billows of the sea, the broad tides of rivers, the compass of the ocean, and the circuits of the stars, and pass themselves by.
Source: Confessions (c. 397), X

People , Travel , Mountain , Star

“We were ensnared by the wisdom of the serpent; we are set free by the foolishness of God.”

Aurelius Augustinus De doctrina christiana

1:14 http://books.google.com/books?id=9dJGZkTAqJsC&q="we+were+ensnared+by+the+wisdom+of+the+serpent+we+are+set+free+by+the+foolishness+of+god"&pg=PA10#v=onepage
Latin: Serpentis sapientia decepti sumus, Dei stultitia liberamur.
De doctrina christiana

Wisdom , God

“Beauty grows in you to the extent that love grows, because charity itself is the soul's beauty.”
Quantum in te crescit amor, tantum crescit pulchritudo; quia ipsa caritas est animae pulchritudo.

Aurelius Augustinus

Ninth Homily, Paragraph 9, as translated by Boniface Ramsey (2008) Augustinian Heritage Institute
Variant translation:
Inasmuch as love grows in you, in so much beauty grows; for love is itself the beauty of the soul.
as translated by H. Browne and J. H. Meyers, The Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers (1995)
Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John (414)

Love , Beauty , Soul

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

Aurelius Augustinus book Confessions

I, 7
Confessions (c. 397)

Children , Soul

“My mother spoke of Christ to my father, by her feminine and childlike virtues, and, after having borne his violence without a murmur or complaint, gained him at the close of his life to Christ.”

Aurelius Augustinus

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 351
Disputed

Life , Christ

“The true servants of God are not solicitous that He should order them to do what they desire to do, but that they may desire to do what He orders them to do.”

Aurelius Augustinus

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 616

God

“In necessary things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity (love).”
In necessariis unitas, In dubiis libertas, In omnibus autem caritas.

Aurelius Augustinus

The first known occurence of such an expression is as "Omnesque mutuam amplecteremur unitatem in necessariis, in non necessariis libertatem, in omnibus caritatem" in De Republica Ecclesiastica by Marco Antonio de Dominis, Pars I. London (1617), lib. 4 cap. 8 p. 676 (penultimate sentence) books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=QcVFAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA676, cf. liberlocorumcommunium http://liberlocorumcommunium.blogspot.com/2010/03/in-necessariis-unitas-in-non.html.
Misattributed

Love

“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.”

Aurelius Augustinus book The City of God

XV, 22
The City of God (early 400s)

God , Beauty , Thinking

“The inclination to seek the truth is safer than the presumption which regards unknown things as known.”

Aurelius Augustinus On the Trinity

(Cambridge: 2002), Book 9, Chapter 1, p. 24
On the Trinity (417)

Truth

“In matters that are so obscure and far beyond our vision, we find in Holy Scripture passages which can be interpreted in very different ways without prejudice to the faith we have received. In such cases, we should not rush in headlong and so firmly take our stand on one side that, if further progress in the search for truth justly undermines this position, we too fall with it.”

Aurelius Augustinus

I, xviii, 37. Modern translation by J.H. Taylor
De Genesi ad Litteram

Truth , Faith , Way , Search

“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"”

Aurelius Augustinus book Confessions

I found this nowhere there.
VII, 9
Confessions (c. 397)

God , Books , Reading

“Woman, compared to other creatures, is the image of God, for she bears dominion over them. But compared unto man, she may not be called the image of God, for she bears not rule and lordship over man, but ought to obey him. The woman shall be subject to man as unto Christ. For woman, has not her example from the body and from the flesh, that so she shall be subject to man, as the flesh is unto the Spirit, because that the flesh in the weakness and mortality of this life lusts and strives against the Spirit, and therefore would not the Holy Ghost give example of subjection to the woman of any such thing.”

Aurelius Augustinus

As quoted by John Knox The First Blast to Awaken Women Degenerate http://www.swrb.com/newslett/actualNLs/firblast.htm (1558)
Disputed

Life , God , Christ

“We are He, since we are His body and since He was made man in order to be our Head.”

Aurelius Augustinus

Source: On the Mystical Body of Christ, p.432

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

Aurelius Augustinus

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 607

Light

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

Aurelius Augustinus book The City of God

I, 9
The City of God (early 400s)

Faith , Suffering , Universe

“The truth is like a lion. You don’t have to defend it. Let it loose and it will defend itself.”

Aurelius Augustinus

Not found in Augustine's works, it is stated in Fauxtations: Because sometimes the Internet is wrong : St. Augustine: The Truth is Like a Lion (18 October 2015) https://fauxtations.wordpress.com/2015/10/18/st-augustine-the-truth-is-like-a-lion/, that this is very likely a summary derived from statements of Charles Haddon Spurgeon about the "Word of God" or "the pure gospel", and the Bible:
:: The Word of God can take care of itself, and will do so if we preach it, and cease defending it. See you that lion. They have caged him for his preservation; shut him up behind iron bars to secure him from his foes! See how a band of armed men have gathered together to protect the lion. What a clatter they make with their swords and spears! These mighty men are intent upon defending a lion. O fools, and slow of heart! Open that door! Let the lord of the forest come forth free. Who will dare to encounter him? What does he want with your guardian care? Let the pure gospel go forth in all its lion-like majesty, and it will soon clear its own way and ease itself of its adversaries.
::* The Lover of God’s Law Filled with Peace (January 1888)
: and the earlier:
:: There seems to me to have been twice as much done in some ages in defending the Bible as in expounding it, but if the whole of our strength shall henceforth go to the exposition and spreading of it, we may leave it pretty much to defend itself. I do not know whether you see that lion — it is very distinctly before my eyes; a number of persons advance to attack him, while a host of us would defend the grand old monarch, the British Lion, with all our strength. Many suggestions are made and much advice is offered. This weapon is recommended, and the other. Pardon me if I offer a quiet suggestion. Open the door and let the lion out; he will take care of himself. Why, they are gone! He no sooner goes forth in his strength than his assailants flee. The way to meet infidelity is to spread the Bible. The answer to every objection against the Bible is the Bible.
::* Speech at the Annual Meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society "The Bible" (5 May 1875), in Speeches by C. H. Spurgeon at Home and Abroad (1878) edited by G.H. Pike https://books.google.com/books?id=j_0CAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA17&lpg=PA17#v=onepage&q&f=false
Misattributed

Truth

“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.”

Aurelius Augustinus

First Homily, Paragraph 11, as translated by H. Browne, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 7 (1888)
Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John (414)

Heart

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

Aurelius Augustinus

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 62

Beauty , Reading

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

Aurelius Augustinus

Patrologia Latina, vol. 37, p. 1922

“We are born between feces and urine.”
Inter faeces et urinam nascimur.

Aurelius Augustinus

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.
Variant: We are born amid feces and urine.
Misattributed

“Since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special regard to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstance, are brought into closer connection with you.”

Aurelius Augustinus De doctrina christiana

1:28:29 English http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/12021.htm Latin http://www.augustinus.it/latino/dottrina_cristiana/index2.htm
Latin: Sed cum omnibus prodesse non possis, his potissimum consulendum est, qui pro locorum et temporum vel quarumlibet rerum opportunitatibus constrictius tibi quasi quadam sorte iunguntur.
De doctrina christiana

Time