Aphorisms and quotes by St. Augustine

Aurelius Augustine (Blessed Augustine), (354–430), Roman theologian, politician and philosopher

Grace is a meaningful act of will aimed at achieving salvation.

Bliss is the enjoyment of the highest good.

God is beyond all definitions.

God created us for himself, and our heart will be restless until it rests in You.

Let us believe if we cannot understand.

To be wise means to die to this world.

In the necessary there is unity, in the doubtful there is freedom, in everything there is love.

The great abyss is man himself; his hair is easier to count than his feelings and movements of his heart.

Faith questions, reason discovers.

Faith is that we believe what we do not see; and the reward of faith is the ability to see what we believe.

Believe to understand.

Love God and do as you please.

The will in us is always free, but not always good.

Time heals wounds.

All human misfortunes arise from the fact that we enjoy what we should enjoy and use what we should enjoy.

Everyone likes a beautiful horse, but for some reason there is absolutely no one who wants to become one.

Anyone would be more willing to cry in a sane state than to laugh in a state of insanity.

You are dazzled by the gold that glitters in the house of the rich; you certainly see what they have, but you don't see what they lack.

Pride is faith in one's humility.

For language learning, free curiosity is much more important than formidable necessity.

If God had appointed a woman to be the mistress of a man, he would have created her from the head; if he had appointed her to be a slave, he would have created her from the foot; but since He appointed her to be a friend and equal to a man, he created her from a rib.

If there is no evil, then the very fear of evil is evil.

Greed is the desire to have more than is necessary.

The life of the speaker matters more than any speech.

The fun of adults is called business, and for children they are also business.

Concerns about the burial, the arrangement of the tomb, the pomp of the funeral - all this is more likely to console the living than to help the dead.

An evil person harms himself before he harms another.

Both what a person does and what he suffers is called evil. The first is sin, the second is punishment. A person commits the evil that he wants and suffers the evil that he does not want.

Every being, as long as it exists, must have the quality of goodness, just as it has the quality of existence.

Just as silence is the absence of any noise, nakedness is the absence of clothing, illness is the absence of health, and darkness is the absence of light, so evil is the absence of good, and not something that exists in itself.

When people think about God, whom they cannot comprehend, they are really thinking about themselves, and not about Him; they compare not Him, but themselves, and not with Him, but with themselves.

Who hates the world? Those who tore apart the truth.

Love for one's neighbor is limited by how much each person loves himself.

Love for the temporary can be banished only by feeling the sweetness of the eternal.

People experience suffering only to the extent that they succumb to it.

People were not created to possess so-called good things, but if people themselves have become good, they make things truly good, using them for the sake of good.

We do not know how long the earth and sky will last, but we know that 3 and 7 will always be 10.

What is love like? She has hands to help others, she has legs to rush to the aid of the poor and needy, she has eyes to see grief and need, she has ears to hear people’s sighs and complaints - that’s what looks like love.

To enjoy is to love something for its own sake.

What comes into his head is not in his power.

Don't make irrevocable judgments!

It is not he who gives alms who gives from his surplus, but he who deprives himself of what is necessary for the benefit of those in need.

There is no higher path than the path of mercy, and only the humble and meek can walk along this path.

There is no great merit in living long, not even in living forever; but great is the merit of the one who lives virtuously.

There is no salvation outside the church.

A person has no other reason to philosophize than the desire for bliss.

No man has the right to lead such a contemplative life as to forget his duty of service to his fellow man.

No one does anything well if it is against his will, even if a person does something good.

The same force, befalling disasters, tests the good, cleanses, selects, and weeds out the evil, devastates, and eradicates.

Success in the great depends on loyalty in the small.

Just as there is sometimes mercy that punishes, so there is cruelty that spares.

Since distinguishing between true and false is a very difficult matter, one should not be angry with those who are mistaken.

Poetry is the devil's wine.

A habit, if not resisted, soon becomes a necessity.

Reason is the gaze of the soul, with which it, by itself, without the mediation of the body, contemplates the true.

Man himself is a greater miracle than all the miracles performed by people.

The very concealment of the truth is either a test of our humility or the destruction of pride.

Grief is sadness about one's imperfection.

One should trust more those who teach, rather than those who command.

Death is evil only because of what follows it.

No one can ever love a completely unknown thing.

Perfection is a person's knowledge of his own imperfection.

Create goodness. Do this not for the sake of your own glory, but for the sake of the glory of the one to whom you owe the opportunity to do good.

The fairest punishment for sin is that a person loses what he did not want to use well... one who did not want to do right when he could, loses this opportunity when he wants to do right.

Seek not to understand what you are able to believe, but to believe what you are able to understand.

There is a higher friendship, based not on habit, but on reason, in which a person loves his friend through loyalty and good will. If we can find anything higher than such friendship, it is divine love. A person begins to love God and loves Him in every other person.

Happiness is the highest friendship, based not on habit, but on reason, in which a person loves his friend through loyalty and good will.

He who is good is free, even if he is a slave; he who is angry is a slave, even if he is a king.

He who is not jealous does not love.

He who is full of love is filled with God himself.

Understand in order to believe.

Philosophy is not called wisdom itself, but the love of wisdom.

The coldness of mercy is the silence of the heart; the flame of mercy is the murmur of the heart.

What is time? If no one asks me about it, I know what time is; if I wanted to explain to the questioner, no, I don’t know.

Augustine Aurelius (Blessed) short biography (354-430)

Augustine Aurelius quotes. Augustine Aurelius - Roman Christian philosopher, theologian, sage. A native of Numidia. He was one of the key figures in the history of European philosophy. He came from a poor provincial family and in his youth was influenced by his Christian mother. Having been educated in Madaurus and Carthage, he chose a career as a professional rhetorician. At the end of the 370s. experienced a passion for Manichaeism, and in the early 380s. - skepticism. In 383 moved to Rome, but soon received a position as a rhetorician in Milan, where he met Bishop Ambrose and began to study the writings of the Neoplatonists and the epistles of the Apostle Paul. In the spring of 387 he was baptized. A year later he returned to North Africa: from 391. - presbyter, ace 395 until his death - bishop of the city of Hippo. One of the most influential fathers of the Christian Church. His legacy in theology and criticism is truly enormous. The most famous is the autobiographical work “Confession,” which laid the foundation for the confessional genre. Augustine is called "blessed" by Catholic theologians. As a theologian and writer, he had a strong influence on the design of the entire dogma of Catholicism.

Augustine Aurelius works

The most famous works: “On Christian Doctrine”, “On the City of God”.

Augustine's teaching became an irrefutable authority in the Middle Ages.

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Tuesday, December 09, 2014 15:56 + to quote book

CITATY.SU - a minimum of words, a maximum of meaning During the 35 years of his episcopate, Blessed Augustine devoted many works to the fight against the heresies of the Donatists, Manichaeans and Pelagians. Blessed Augustine wrote many works (according to the certificate of his disciple and life writer Possidios, their number reaches 1030), from of which the most famous are: “On the City of God”, “Confession”, 17 books against the Pelagians and “Christian Science”. St. Augustine first of all cared that his writings were understandable and edifying. “It is better,” he said, “that grammarians blame us than that the people do not understand.” Bliss is the enjoyment of the highest good. God is beyond all definitions. God created us for himself, and our heart will be restless until it rests in You. Let us believe if we cannot understand. To be wise means to die to this world. In the necessary there is unity, in the doubtful there is freedom, in everything there is love. The great abyss is man himself; his hair is easier to count than his feelings and movements of his heart. Faith questions, reason discovers. Faith is that we believe what we do not see; and the reward of faith is the ability to see what we believe. Believe to understand. Love God and do as you please. The will in us is always free, but not always good. Time heals wounds. All human misfortunes arise from the fact that we enjoy what we should enjoy and use what we should enjoy. Everyone likes a beautiful horse, but for some reason there is absolutely no one who wants to become one. Anyone would be more willing to cry in a sane state than to laugh in a state of insanity. You are dazzled by the gold that glitters in the house of the rich; you certainly see what they have, but you don't see what they lack. Pride is faith in one's humility. For language learning, free curiosity is much more important than formidable necessity. If there is no evil, then the very fear of evil is evil. Greed is the desire to have more than is necessary. The life of the speaker matters more than any speech. The fun of adults is called business, and for children they are also business. Concerns about the burial, the arrangement of the tomb, the pomp of the funeral - all this is more likely to console the living than to help the dead. An evil person harms himself before he harms another. Both what a person does and what he suffers is called evil. The first is sin, the second is punishment. A person commits the evil that he wants and suffers the evil that he does not want. Every being, as long as it exists, must have the quality of goodness, just as it has the quality of existence. Just as silence is the absence of any noise, nakedness is the absence of clothing, illness is the absence of health, and darkness is the absence of light, so evil is the absence of good, and not something that exists in itself. When people think about God, whom they cannot comprehend, they are really thinking about themselves, and not about Him; they compare not Him, but themselves, and not with Him, but with themselves. Who hates the world? Those who tore apart the truth. Love for one's neighbor is limited by how much each person loves himself. Love for the temporary can be banished only by feeling the sweetness of the eternal. People experience suffering only to the extent that they succumb to it. People were not created to possess so-called good things, but if people themselves have become good, they make things truly good, using them for the sake of good. We don't know how long earth and sky will last, but we know that 3 and 7 will always be 10. What is love like? She has hands to help others, she has legs to rush to the aid of the poor and needy, she has eyes to see grief and need, she has ears to hear people’s sighs and complaints - that’s what looks like love. To enjoy is to love something for its own sake. What comes into his head is not in his power. Don't make irrevocable judgments! It is not he who gives alms who gives from his surplus, but he who deprives himself of what is necessary for the benefit of those in need. There is no higher path than the path of mercy, and only the humble and meek can walk along this path. There is no great merit in living long, not even in living forever; but great is the merit of the one who lives virtuously. There is no salvation outside the church. A person has no other reason to philosophize than the desire for bliss. No man has the right to lead such a contemplative life as to forget his duty of service to his fellow man. No one does anything well if it is against his will, even if a person does something good. The same force, befalling disasters, tests the good, cleanses, selects, and weeds out the evil, devastates, and eradicates. Success in the great depends on loyalty in the small. Just as there is sometimes mercy that punishes, so there is cruelty that spares. Since distinguishing between true and false is a very difficult matter, one should not be angry with those who are mistaken. Poetry is the devil's wine. A habit, if not resisted, soon becomes a necessity. Reason is the gaze of the soul, with which it, by itself, without the mediation of the body, contemplates the true. Man himself is a greater miracle than all the miracles performed by people. The very concealment of the truth is either a test of our humility or the destruction of pride. Grief is sadness about one's imperfection. One should trust more those who teach, rather than those who command. Death is evil only because of what follows it. No one can ever love a completely unknown thing. Perfection is a person's knowledge of his own imperfection. Create goodness. Do this not for the sake of your own glory, but for the sake of the glory of the one to whom you owe the opportunity to do good. The fairest punishment for sin is that a person loses what he did not want to use well... one who did not want to do right when he could, loses this opportunity when he wants to do right. Strive not to understand what you are able to believe, but to believe what you are able to understand. There is a higher friendship, based not on habit, but on reason, in which a person loves his friend through loyalty and good will. If we can find anything higher than such friendship, it is divine love. A person begins to love God and loves Him in every other person. Happiness is the highest friendship, based not on habit, but on reason, in which a person loves his friend through loyalty and good will. He who is good is free, even if he is a slave; he who is angry is a slave, even if he is a king. He who is not jealous does not love. He who is full of love is filled with God himself. Understand in order to believe. Philosophy is not called wisdom itself, but the love of wisdom. The coldness of mercy is the silence of the heart; the flame of mercy is the murmur of the heart. What is time? If no one asks me about it, I know what time is; if I wanted to explain to the questioner, no, I don’t know.

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Aurelius Augustine

(354-430) philosopher, Christian apologist

Babies are innocent in their bodily weakness, and not in their soul.

The fun of adults is called business, and for children they are also business.

All this is the same: at the beginning of life - educators, teachers, nuts, balls, sparrows; when a person became an adult - prefects, kings, gold, estates, slaves - in essence, all this is the same thing, only the ruler is replaced by severe punishments.

Is there a thief who would calmly tolerate a thief?

I liked to be debauched not only out of love for debauchery, but also out of vanity. Isn't vice reprehensible? And I, fearing censure, became more vicious, and if there was no offense in which I could be equal to other scoundrels, then I imagined that I had done something that I actually did not do, so that I would not be despised for my innocence.

[About the theft of apples from someone else's garden, committed by Augustine in his youth:] I alone would not have committed this theft, in which I liked not what was stolen, but the theft itself; I wouldn’t like to steal alone, I wouldn’t steal. Oh, enemy friendship, elusive depravity of the mind, the desire to harm through laughter and fun! The desire for someone else's loss without the pursuit of one's own gain, (...) but simply because they say: “let's go, let's do it,” and it is a shame not to be shameless.

The great abyss is man himself, “whose hairs are numbered” with Thee, O Lord, (...) and yet his hair is easier to number than his feelings and the movements of his heart.

And as a young man I was very pitiful, and especially pitiful on the threshold of youth; I even asked You [Lord] for chastity and said: “Give me chastity and abstinence, just not now.”

[About his mother, St. Monica:] She obeyed her parents out of obedience to God, rather than obeying God out of obedience to her parents.

When a present friend poured out all the acid of undigested anger at the absent enemy, my mother told each only what would contribute to the reconciliation of both. I would consider this good quality insignificant if I did not know, from bitter experience, that countless people (...) not only convey to their angry enemies the words of their angry enemies, but also add to them what was not said.

[The dying St. Monica] was asked if she wasn’t afraid to leave her body so far from her hometown. “Nothing is far from God. “- she answered, “and there is no need to be afraid that at the end of the world He will not remember where to resurrect me.”

I myself cannot fully contain myself. The mind is too small to master itself.

You [Lord] answer clearly, but not everyone hears clearly. Everyone asks what they want, but they don’t always hear what they want. Your best servant is the one who does not think about how he can hear what he wants, but wants what he hears from You.

“What did God do before he created the heavens and the earth?” I will not answer as they say someone answered, dodging a persistent question with a joke: “I prepared hell for those who inquire about high things.” It is one thing to understand, another to ridicule.

Time was created by You [Lord], and time could not pass until You created time. If there was no time at all before heaven and earth, why ask what You did then. When there was no time, there was no “then.”

Augustine (Aurelius) - one of the most famous and influential fathers of the Christian church, was born on November 13, 354 in the African province of Numidia, in Tagaste (now Souk-Aras in Algeria). Augustine died on August 28, 430, during the first siege of Hippo by the Vandals.

Aphorisms, quotes, sayings - Augustine (Aurelius)

There is no salvation outside the church.
Understand in order to believe.
God is beyond all definitions.
Love God and do as you please.
Don't make irrevocable judgments!
Let us believe if we cannot understand.
The will in us is always free, but not always good.
Death is evil only because of what follows it.
The fun of adults is called business, and for children they are also business.
Perfection is a person's knowledge of his own imperfection.
No one can ever love a completely unknown thing.
Philosophy is not called wisdom itself, but the love of wisdom.
In the necessary there is unity, in the doubtful there is freedom, in everything there is love.
A person has no other reason to philosophize than the desire for bliss.
Everyone likes a beautiful horse, but for some reason there is absolutely no one who wants to become one.
I convinced myself that I should trust those who teach more than those who command.
We do not know how long the earth and sky will last, but we know that 3 and 7 will always be 10.
Reason is the gaze of the soul, with which it, by itself, without the mediation of the body, contemplates the true.
For language learning, free curiosity is much more important than formidable necessity.
Are we wrong to say that time exists only because it tends to disappear?
The great abyss is man himself... his hair is easier to count than his feelings and the movements of his heart.
No one does anything well if it is against their will, even if a person does something good.
Let no one tell me that the movement of celestial bodies is time... I see that time is a certain extension.
After all, just as there is sometimes mercy that punishes, so there is cruelty that spares.
Concerns about the burial, the arrangement of the tomb, the pomp of the funeral - all this is more likely to console the living than to help the dead.
Faith is that we believe everything we do not see; and the reward of faith is the ability to see what we believe.
You are dazzled by the gold that glitters in the house of the rich; you certainly see what they have, but you don't see what they lack.
What is time? If no one asks me about it, I know what time is; if I wanted to explain to the questioner, no, I don’t know.
In you, my soul, I measure time. The impression of someone passing by remains in you, and it is what now exists that I measure, and not what passed and left it.
In the morning, when you are slow to get up, immediately tell yourself: “I am getting up to take on human work. Am I really going to be annoyed that I am going to work for the sake of which I was created and sent into the world!
If God had appointed a woman to be the mistress of a man, he would have created her from the head; if he had appointed her to be a slave, he would have created her from the foot; but since he intended her to be a friend and equal to a man, he created it from a rib.
A long time makes long a multitude of passing moments, which cannot help but replace one another; in eternity nothing passes away, but remains as the present in its entirety; time cannot exist in its entirety as the present.
Now it becomes clear to me that neither the future nor the past exists and that three times are not accurately expressed when they say: past, present and future; but it would be more accurate, it seems, to express it this way: the present of the past, the present of the future.
A person is a complete picture, you can not like something in it, like the way mountains or rivers are depicted, you can love something specific in it. But it must be perceived as a whole, in its entirety. Either you love the whole person or you don’t. Yes, sometimes you cannot put up with certain traits, and then you have to look for a compromise.
That I measure time, I know, but I cannot measure the future, because it does not yet exist; I cannot measure the present, because it has no duration; I cannot measure the past, because it no longer exists. What am I measuring? Time that passes but has not yet passed?