Augustine of Hippo Quotes

252 Sourced Quotes

True martyrdom is not determined by the penalty suffered, but by the cause.

Augustine of Hippo
In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?

Augustine of Hippo
You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.

Augustine of Hippo
Before God can deliver us from ourselves, we must undeceive ourselves.

Augustine of Hippo
Such is the strength of the burden of habit. Here I have the power to be but do not wish it. There I wish to be but lacks the power. On both grounds, I'm in misery.

Augustine of Hippo
It is a singing to the praise of God. If you praise God, and do not sing, you utter no hymn. If you sing, and praise no God, you utter no hymn. If you praise anything which does not pertain to the praise of God, though in singing you praise, you utter no hymn.
Defining a hymn

Augustine of Hippo
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.

Augustine of Hippo
No man has a right to lead such a life of contemplation as to forget in his own ease the service due to his neighbor.

Augustine of Hippo
Free curiosity has greater power to stimulate learning than rigorous coercion. Nevertheless, the free ranging flux of curiosity is channeled by discipline under Your Law.

Augustine of Hippo
When the king asked him what he meant by infesting the sea, the pirate defiantly replied:
The same as you do when you infest the whole world;
but because I do it with a little ship I am called a robber,
and because you do it with a great fleet, you are an emperor.

Augustine of Hippo
So you see how endlessly futile and fruitless it would be if we wanted to refute their objections every time they obstinately resolved not to think through what they say but merely to speak, just so long as they contradict our arguments in any way they can.

Augustine of Hippo
For if a thing is not diminished by being shared with others, it is not rightly owned if it is only owned and not shared.

Augustine of Hippo
The dove loves even when it attacks; the wolf hates even when it flatters.

Augustine of Hippo
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.

Augustine of Hippo
The inclination to seek the truth is safer than the presumption which regards unknown things as known.

Augustine of Hippo
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
There is no salvation outside the church.

Augustine of Hippo
Therefore let every Christian, yea, let the whole body of Christ everywhere cry out, despite the tribulations it endures, despite temptations and countless scandals, saying: "Preserve my soul, for I am holy; save Thy servant, O my God, that trusteth in thee" (Ps. 85:2) No, this holy one is not proud, for he trusts in God.

Augustine of Hippo
What has the Church done to thee, that thou shouldst wish to decapitate her? Thou wouldst take away her Head, and believe in the Head alone, despising the body. Vain is thy service, and false thy devotion to the Head. For to sever it from the body is an injury to both Head and body.

Augustine of Hippo
Christ is not valued at all unless He be valued above all.

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

Augustine of Hippo
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 (1 Cor. 12:27).

Augustine of Hippo
The truth is rather in what God reveals than in what groping men surmise.

Augustine of Hippo
The mind itself, its love of itself and it knowledge of itself are a kind of trinity.

Augustine of Hippo
Where is the thief who cannot find bad when he hunts for it?

Augustine of Hippo
Who is this that cries from the ends of the earth? Who is this one man who reaches to the extremities of the universe? He is one, but that one is unity. He is one, not one in a single place, but the cry of this one man comes from the remotest ends of the earth. But how can this one man cry out from the ends of the earth, unless he be one in all?

Augustine of Hippo
When I come to be united to thee with all my being, then there will be no more pain and toil for me, and my life shall be a real life, being wholly filled by thee.

Augustine of Hippo
The mind commands the body and is instantly obeyed. The mind commands itself and meets resistance. The mind commands the hand to move, and it so easy that one hardly distinguishes the order from its execution. Yet mind is mind and hand is body. The mind orders the mind to will. The recipient of the order is itself, yet it does not perform it.

Augustine of Hippo
The Word takes to Himself one man, for He takes unity. He does not take schisms to Himself, nor does He take heresies. … So it is one man who is taken, and his Head is Christ. … This is that "blessed man who hath not walked in the council of the ungodly" (Ps. 1:1); this is he that is assumed. He is not outside of us. … Let us be in Him, and we shall be assumed; let us be in Him, and we shall be chosen. … Therefore this one man that is taken to become the temple of God, is at once many and one.

Augustine of Hippo
So the Church too, like Mary, enjoys perpetual virginity and uncorrupted fecundity.

Augustine of Hippo