Saint Augustine

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

“It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.”

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

“Love is the beauty of the soul.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“He that is jealous is not in love.”

“Punishment is justice for the unjust.”

“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.”

“O Lord, help me to be pure, but not yet.”

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

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

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

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

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

“Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.”