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Famous Saint Augustine Quotes

“Give me yourself, O my God, give yourself back to me. Lo, I love you, but if my love is too mean, let me love more passionately. I cannot gauge my love, nor know how far it fails, how much more love I need for my life to set its course straight into your arms, never swerving until hidden in the covert of your face.”

IfsKnowsNeedsGivingMeanFacesCoursesWealthLove IsKnow HowFailingLove YouArmsLet MeGive MeMiseryYour FaceWoeWithout YouGaugesCovert
Author:Saint Augustine
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“For I wondered that others, subject to death, did live, since he whom I loved, as if he should never die, was dead; and I wondered yet more that myself, who was to him a second self, could live, he being dead. Well said one of his friend, "Thou half of my soul"; for I felt that my soul and his soul were "one soul in two bodies": and therefore was my life a horror to me, because I would not live halved. And therefore perchance I feared to die, lest he whom I had much loved should die wholly.”

IfsShouldWellsSaidTwoSoulSelfBodyDiesFeltHalfSubjectsHorrorMy SoulWell SaidInfernal Devices
Book:The Confessions of Saint Augustine
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“We who preach and write, do so in a manner different from which the Scriptures have been written. We write while we make progress.We learn something new every day. We speak as we still knock for understanding...If anyone criticizes me when I have said what is right, he does me an injustice. But I would be more angry with the one who praises me and takes what I have written for Gospel truth than I would be with the one who criticizes me unfairly.”

IfsWritingDoeHas BeensSaidStillsDifferentWisdomWould BeSpeakUnderstandingProgressWrittenPraiseAngryInjusticeScriptureSomething NewCriticize
Author:Saint Augustine
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“For if it is not lawful to take the law into our own hands and slay even a guilty person, whose death no public sentence has warranted. Then certainly he who kills himself is a homicide, and so much the guiltier of his own death as he was more innocent of that offence for which he doomed himself to die.”

IfsPersonsHandsLawDiesSuicideSentencesInnocentGuiltyDoomedSuicidalOffenceHomicideGuilty Person
Book:Saint Augustine of Hippo Collection [50 Books]
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“I do not doubt that all those who have received Baptism anywhere and from whomever do have Baptism, as long as it was consecrated with the words of the Gospel and they received it without pretence on their part and with some degree of faith. However, it would not avail them for their spiritual salvation if they were lacking in that charity by which they might be implanted in the Catholic Church.”

IfsLongMightSpiritualChurchDoubtDegreesCatholicSalvationCharityLackingSacramentsCatholic ChurchBaptismPretence
Author:Saint Augustine
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“As to the fable that there are Antipodes, that is to say, men on the opposite side of the earth where the sun rises when it sets to us, men who walk with their feet opposite ours, that is on no ground credible. Even if some unknown landmass is there, and not just ocean, there was only one pair of original ancestors, and it is inconceivable that such distant regions should have been peopled by Adam's descendants.”

IfsMenShouldHas BeensEarthSidesWalksSunFeetOceanShould HaveOppositesOriginalsScaryRegionsPairsAdamAncestorShould Have BeenFablesDescendantsCredibleSun RiseAntipodes
Author:Saint Augustine
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“In all trouble you should seek God. You should not set Him over against your troubles, but within them. God can only relieve your troubles if you in your anxiety cling to Him. Trouble should not really be thought of as this thing or that in particular, for our whole life on earth involves trouble; and through the troubles of our earthly pilgrimage we find God.”

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Author:Saint Augustine
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“Try as they may to savor the taste of eternity, their thoughts still twist and turn upon the ebb and flow of things in past and future time. But if only their minds could be seized and held steady, they would be still for a while and, for that short moment, they would glimse the splendor of eternity, which is forever still.”

IfsTryingMindMayStillsMomentsWould BePastTurnsForeverTasteFlowEternityManagementTime ManagementSteadyTwistsSplendorEbb And FlowTwists And TurnsFuture Time
Book:Confessions
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“I beseech Thee, my God, I would fain know, if so Thou willest, for what purpose my baptism was then deferred? was it for my good that the rein was laid loose, as it were, upon me, for me to sin? or was it not laid loose? If not, why does it still echo in our ears on all sides, "Let him alone, let him do as he will, for he is not yet baptised?" but as to bodily health, no one says, "Let him be worse wounded, for he is not yet healed." How much better then, had I been at once healed; and then, by my friends' diligence and my own, my soul's recovered health had been kept safe in Thy keeping who gavest it.”

IfsDoeStillsSoulSidesMy OwnSinHealingSafeMy FriendsEarsMy SoulEchoesWoundedHealedDiligenceReinsBaptized
Author:Saint Augustine
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“The Church even now is the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of heaven. Accordingly, even now His saints reign with Him, though otherwise than as they shall reign hereafter; and yet, though the tares grow in the Church along with the wheat, they do not reign with Him. For they reign with Him who do what the apostle says, 'If you are risen with Christ, mind the things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Seek those things which are above, not the things which are on the earth'.”

IfsMindHandsEarthChristianHeavenGrowsChristChurchSaintKingdomsOrthodoxReignApostlesOrthodox ChristianHereafterRisenWheatKingdom Of HeavenHands Of God
Author:Saint Augustine
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“Far be it from us to doubt that all number is known to Him 'Whose understanding is infinite' (Ps. 147:5). The infinity of number, though there be no numbering of infinite numbers, is yet not incomprehensible by Him Whose understanding is infinite. And thus, if everything which is comprehended is defined or made finite by the comprehension of him who knows it, then all infinity is in some ineffable way made finite to God, for it is comprehensible by His knowledge.”

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Author:Saint Augustine
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“Do you desire security? Here you have it. The Lord says to you, "I will never abandon you, I will always be with you." If a good man made you such a promise, you would trust him. God makes it, and do you doubt? Do you seek a support more sure than the word of God, which is infallible? Surely, He has made the promise, He has written it, He has pledged His word for it, it is most certain.”

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Author:Saint Augustine
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“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.”

IfsWayShouldDifferentMatterFallSidesVisionCasesProgressPositionHolyPrejudiceScriptureDifferent WaysPassagesObscureHoly ScripturesSearch For Truth
Author:Saint Augustine
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