St Augustine
Theologian (354-430 B.C.)
During his younger years Augustine was a Manichaean and both a student and teacher at Carthage and Rome. In his thirties, he came across Neo platonic philosophy and eventually became a devout Christian. In 396 B.C. he became the Christian bishop of Hippo, and published his book Confessiones which documented his life both before and after becoming a Christian. For the remainder of his life, Augustine defended Christianity and asserted that knowledge can be established with certainty due to the existence of God. Although his philosophy was both stoic and Christian, he acknowledged that pertaining to an abstract and invasive form was not always the basis of insight and rather believed that Gods sovereignty was above all, even the state, which allowed him his right of visage.
Quotes:
Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.
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.
Picture God as saying to you, “My son, why is it that day by day you rise, and pray, and genuflect, and even strike the ground with your forehead, nay sometimes even shed tears, while you say to Me: ‘My Father, give me wealth!’ If I were to give it to you, you would think yourself of some importance, you would fancy that you had gained something very great. Because you asked for it, you have it. But take care to make good use of it. Before you had it, you were humble; now that you have begun to be rich you despise the poor. What kind of a good is that which only makes you worse? For worse you are, since you were bad already. And that it would make you worse you knew not; hence you asked it of Me. I gave it to you, and I proved you; you have found — and you have found out! Ask of Me better things than these, greater things than these. Ask of Me spiritual things. Ask of Me Myself!”
God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination.
Give me chastity and continence, but not quite yet.
The greatest evil is physical pain.
It is not the punishment but the cause that makes the martyr.
If we live good lives, the times are also good. As we are, such are the times.
A thing is not necessarily true because badly uttered, nor false because spoken magnificently.
Will is to grace as the horse is to the rider.
The purpose of all wars, is peace.
Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.
I want my friend to miss me as long as I miss him.
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.
There is no possible source of evil except good.
No eulogy is due to him who simply does his duty and nothing more.
God judged it better to bring good out of evil than to suffer no evil to exist.
This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfections.
Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.
Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.
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.
To abstain from sin when one can no longer sin is to be forsaken by sin, not to forsake it.
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.
Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.
We make ourselves a ladder out of our vices if we trample the vices themselves underfoot.
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.”
Patience is the companion of wisdom.
The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works.
God is not a deceiver, that he should offer to support us, and then, when we lean upon Him, should slip away from us.
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.
Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.
Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.
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.