67 Inspirational St. Augustine Quotes

His original Latin name is Aurelius Augustinus, he is known to be called Saint Augustine of Hippo but many of us know him simply as Saint Augustine (St. Augustine). He was born on November 13, 354 in Tagaste, Numidia. Then he was the bishop of Hippo from 396-430. St. Augustine had written two important works, The City of God (c. 413–426) and Confessions (c. 400).

When he was a young age and getting his education, he studied the principles of Latin and Greek Literature, his teachers used the old pagan method style of teaching. It doesn’t seem that Saint Augustine was taught about the Christian faith when he was younger, but his parents were impressed by his ability to learn and sent him to schools that were about two day distances away from their home.

St. Augustine is responsible for shaping some of Latin Christianity with the theological style in his writings. Besides shaping Latin Christianity, Augustine also helped set the foundations for modern and medieval Christian thoughts. He is known as the doctor of the church in Roman Catholicism. The writings of his that have survived time show his wisdom, strength and the power that he had to catch and hold the reader’s attention. He is considered to be one of the most significant Chistian thinkers.

St. Augustine Quotes

  1. “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.” – St Augustine
  2. “It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.” – St. Augustine
  3. “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” – St. Augustine
  4. “Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” – Saint Augustine
  5. “Take care of your body as if you were going to live forever; and take care of your soul as if you were going to die tomorrow.” – Saint Augustine
  6. “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” – Augustine of Hippo
  7. “Bad times, hard times, this is what people keep saying; but let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times; Such as we are, such are the times.” – St Augustine
  8. “Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.” – St. Augustine
  9. “Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” – St. Augustine
  10. “Women should not be enlightened or educated in any way. They should, in fact, be segregated as they are the cause of hideous and involuntary erections in holy men.” – Saint Augustine
  11. “A Christian is: a mind through which Christ thinks, a heart through which Christ loves, a voice through which Christ speaks, and a hand through which Christ helps.” – Saint Augustine
  12. “Right is right even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.” – St. Augustine
  13. “The truth is like a lion. You don’t have to defend it. Let it loose. It will defend itself.” – St Augustine
  14. “If two friends ask you to judge a dispute, do not accept, as you may lose a friend.” – St. Augustine
  15. “God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.” – St. Augustine
  16. “Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved.” – Saint Augustine
  17. “Because God has made us for Himself, our hearts are restless until they rest in Him.” – Saint Augustine
  18. “God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination.” – St. Augustine of Hippo
  19. “Remember, you will be faulted not because you are ignorant against your will, but because you neglect to seek out what makes you ignorant.” – St Augustine
  20. “Indeed, man wishes to be happy even when he so lives as to make happiness impossible.” – St. Augustine
  21. “Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.” – St. Augustine
  22. “He cannot have God for his Father who will not have the Church for his mother.” – Saint Augustine
  23. “To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement.” – Saint Augustine
  24. “The punishment of every disordered mind is its own disorder.” – St. Augustine of Hippo
  25. “Trust the past to God’s mercy, the present to God’s love, and the future to God’s providence.” – St Augustine
  26. “Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.” – St. Augustine
  27. “Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.” – St. Augustine
  28. “Love, and do what you will. If you keep silence, do it out of love. If you cry out, do it out of love. If you refrain from punishing, do it out of love.” – Saint Augustine
  29. “There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.” – Saint Augustine
  30. “Miracles are not contrary to nature but only contrary to what we know about nature.” – St. Augustine
  31. “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St Augustine
  32. “Repentant tears wash out the stain of guilt.” – St. Augustine
  33. “Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.” – St. Augustine
  34. “He who does not have the church as his mother, does not have God as his father.” – Saint Augustine
  35. “Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.” – Saint Augustine
  36. “Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a teardrop.” – Saint Augustine
  37. “Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.” – St Augustine
  38. “Though defensive violence will always be ‘a sad necessity’ in the eyes of men of principle, it would be still more unfortunate if wrongdoers should dominate just men.” – St. Augustine
  39. “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.” – St. Augustine
  40. “By faithfulness we are collected and wound up into unity within ourselves, whereas we had been scattered abroad in multiplicity.” – Saint Augustine
  41. “In order to discover the character of people we have only to observe what they love.” – Saint Augustine
  42. “Patience is the companion of wisdom.” – Saint Augustine
  43. “Unless you believe you will not understand.” – St Augustine
  44. “No one can begin a new life, unless he repent of the old.” – St. Augustine
  45. “God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.” – St. Augustine
  46. “O Lord, grant that I may do Thy will as if it were my will, so that Thou mayest do my will as if it were Thy will.” – Saint Augustine
  47. “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.” – Saint Augustine
  48. “God is always trying to give good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive them.” – St. Augustine
  49. “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.” – St Augustine
  50. “It seems to me that an unjust law is no law at all.” – St. Augustine
  51. “Since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special attention to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstances, are brought into closer connection with you.” – St. Augustine
  52. “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.” – Saint Augustine
  53. “God provides the wind, Man must raise the sail.” – Saint Augustine
  54. “In my deepest wound I saw your glory, and it dazzled me.” – St. Augustine
  55. “What you are must always displease you, if you would attain to that which you are not.” – St Augustine
  56. “I want my friend to miss me as long as I miss him.” – St. Augustine
  57. “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.” – St. Augustine
  58. “There is no love without hope, no hope without love, and neither love nor hope without faith.” – Saint Augustine
  59. “The measure of love is to love without measuring.” – Saint Augustine
  60. “Christ is not valued at all, unless he is valued above all.” – St. Augustine
  61. “Take care of your body as if you were going to live forever; take care of your soul as if you were going to die tomorrow.” – St Augustine
  62. “We cannot pass our guardian angel’s bounds, resigned or sullen, he will hear our sighs.” – St. Augustine
  63. “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.” – St. Augustine
  64. “The good man, though a slave, is free; the wicked, though he reigns, is a slave.” – Saint Augustine
  65. “He who has God has everything; he who has everything but God has nothing.” – Saint Augustine
  66. “You never go away from us, yet we have difficulty in returning to You. Come, Lord, stir us up and call us back. Kindle and seize us. Be our fire and our sweetness. Let us love. Let us run.” – St. Augustine
  67. “Oh, beauty, ever ancient and ever new.” – St Augustine
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St. Augustine Video

This is an excellent educational video that is also fun and short. Yes, it’s a rare combination. But seriously if you have read this far and really want to learn a lot quickly about Augustine, check it out! He had a lot of interesting things to say about success and failure and important philosophical insights that inspire us to this day.

Related: The most inspiring church quotes

Summary

Saint Augustine has lasting influences and power in his works and theology that these works and theologies are often used in the way Christianity is taught. He is an extraordinary person in not only the history of Catholicism and Chistianity but also in history itself.

Regardless of whether you are religious or not, these quotes are riddled with inspiration and motivation. Saint Augustine still holds the power to capture interest and hold that interest when people read his works.

Finally check out these quotes about trusting in god

Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons. Author Daderot

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