Saint Augustine

It seems to me that an unjust law is no law at all.

We cannot pass our guardian angel's bounds, resigned or sullen, he will hear our sighs.

Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others.

Love, and do what you like.

Repentant tears wash out the stain of guilt.

There is something in humility which strangely exalts the heart.

It is not the punishment but the cause that makes the martyr.

Bad company is like a nail driven into a post, which, after the first and second blow, may be drawn out with little difficulty; but being once driven up to the head, the pincers cannot take hold to draw it out, but which can only be done by the destruction of the wood.

Indeed, man wishes to be happy even when he so lives as to make happiness impossible.

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.

Passion is the evil in adultery. If a man has no opportunity of living with another man's wife, but if it is obvious for some reason that he would like to do so, and would do so if he could, he is no less guilty than if he was caught in the act.

To seek the highest good is to live well.

The verdict of the world is conclusive.

If two friends ask you to judge a dispute, don't accept, because you will lose one friend; on the other hand, if two strangers come with the same request, accept because you will gain one friend.

Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee.

The words printed here are concepts. You must go through the experiences.

To abstain from sin when one can no longer sin is to be forsaken by sin, not to forsake it.

The same thing which is now called Christian religion existed among the ancients. They have begun to call 'Christian' the true religion which existed before.

Will is to grace as the horse is to the rider.

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.

He fashioned hell for the inquisitive.

He that is kind is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king.

Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.

No eulogy is due to him who simply does his duty and nothing more.

He who labours, prays.

The soul, which is spirit, can not dwell in dust; it is carried along to dwell in the blood.

There is no possible source of evil except good.

To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.

If we did not have rational souls, we would not be able to believe.

A thing is not necessarily true because badly uttered, nor false because spoken magnificently.

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

If I am given a formula, and I am ignorant of its meaning, it cannot teach me anything, but if I already know it what does the formula teach me?

Blessedness consists in the accomplishment of our desires, and in our having only regular desires.

Who can map out the various forces at play in one soul? Man is a great depth, O Lord. The hairs of his head are easier by far to count than his feeling, the movements of his heart.

This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfections.

Don't you believe that there is in man a deep so profound as to be hidden even to him in whom it is?

This world's a bubble.

We make a ladder for ourselves of our vices, if we trample those same vices underfoot.

The spiritual virtue of a sacrament is like light; although it passes among the impure, it is not polluted.

The honors of this world, what are they but puff, and emptiness, and peril of falling?

My mind withdrew its thoughts from experience, extracting itself from the contradictory throng of sensuous images, that it might find out what that light was wherein it was bathed... And thus, with the flash of one hurried glance, it attained to the vision of That Which Is.

The desire is thy prayers; and if thy desire is without ceasing, thy prayer will also be without ceasing. The continuance of your longing is the continuance of your prayer.

We are certainly in a common class with the beasts; every action of animal life is concerned with seeking bodily pleasure and avoiding pain.

Grant what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt.

We make ourselves a ladder out of our vices if we trample the vices themselves underfoot.

Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.

Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.

Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.

In doing what we ought we deserve no praise, because it is our duty.