Augustine of Hippo Quotes

Christian theologian, philosopher, and saint (354–430)

St. Augustine of Hippo (13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a Christian theologian, rhetor, North African bishop, Doctor of the Catholic Church, saint, and a philosopher influenced in his early years by Manichaeism and the Neo-Platonism of Plotinus.

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Native Name: Aurelius Augustinus

Alternative Names: Saint Augustine • Saint Austin • Augustine • St. Augoustinos • St. Augustine of Hippo • Aurelius Augustine • Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis • St. Augustine • Augustinus • Saint Augustine of Hippo • Augustinus, Aurelius • bishop of Hippo

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Augustine taught that true freedom is not choice or lack of constraint, but being what you are meant to be. Humans were created in the image of God. True freedom, then, is not found in moving away from that image but only in living it out.

"Cantare amantis est ... Singing belongs to one who loves." (s. 336, 1 – PL 38, 1472).

If you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. For where you are pleased with yourself there you have remained. Keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing.

How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose..! You drove them from me, you who are the true, the sovereign joy. You drove them from me and took their place.... O Lord my God, my Light, my Wealth, and my Salvation.

The truth is like a lion. You don't have to defend it. Let it loose. It will defend itself.

When I come to be united to thee with all my being, then there will be no more pain and toil for me, and my life shall be a real life, being wholly filled by thee.

The good man is free, even if he is a slave. The evil man is a slave, even if he is a king.

For whence had that former sorrow so easily penetrated to the quick, but that I had poured out my soul upon the dust, in loving one who must die?

His knowledge is not like ours, which has three tenses: present, past, and future. God's knowledge has no change or variation.

For great are you, Lord, and you look kindly on what is humble, but the lofty-minded you regard from afar. Only to those whose hearts are crushed do you draw close. You will not let yourself be found by the proud, nor even by those who in their inquisitive skill count stars or grains of sand, or measure the expanses of heaven, or trace the paths of the planets.

For a prohibition always increases an illicit desire so long as the love of and joy in holiness is too weak to conquer the inclination to sin...

Every visible thing in this world is put in the charge of an Angel.

In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?

But what do I love when I love my God? Not the sweet melody of harmony and song; not the fragrance of flowers, perfumes, and spices; not manna or honey; not limbs such as the body delights to embrace. It is not these that I love when I love my God. And yet, when I love Him, it is true that I love a light of a certain kind, a voice, a perfume, a food, an embrace; but they are of the kind that I love in my inner self, when my soul is bathed in light that is not bound by space; when it listens to sound that never dies away; when it breathes fragrance that is not borne away on the wind; when it tastes food that is never consumed by the eating; when it clings to an embrace from which it is not severed by fulfillment of desire. This is what I love when I love my God.

I will plant my feet on that step where my parents put me as a child, until self-evident truth comes to light.