Saint Augustine
Saint Augustine
Augustine of Hippo, also known as Saint Augustine, Saint Austin, Blessed Augustine, and the Doctor of Grace, was an early Christian theologian and philosopher whose writings influenced the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy. He was the bishop of Hippo Regius, located in Numidia. He is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers in Western Christianity for his writings in the Patristic Era. Among his most important works are The City of God and Confessions...
ProfessionSaint
wish reason deny
He who denies the existence of God, has some reason for wishing that God did not exist.
intellectual wish misery
It is He who gave to this intellectual nature free-will of such a kind, that if he wishes to forsake God his blessedness, misery should forthwith result.
decision scary wish
Who can control this when its appetite is aroused? No one! In the very movement of this appetite, then, it has no "mode" that responds to the decisions of the will ... Yet what he wishes he cannot accomplish ... In the very movement of the appetite, it has no mode corresponding to the decision of the will.
wish ask-me asks
For what is time? ... Who can even in thought comprehend it, so as to utter a word about it? ... If no one asks me, I know: If I wish to explain it to one that asketh, I know not ....
humility thinking wish
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.
time wish ask-me
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.
humility clouds wish
Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending.
wish add walks
Be always displeased with what you are if you wish to be what you are not. Always add, always walk, always proceed. Neither stand still nor go back nor deviate.
wish misery habit
Such is the strength of the burden of habit. Here I have the power to be but do not wish it. There I wish to be but lacks the power. On both grounds, I'm in misery.
marvel pass people rivers themselves travel
People travel to marvel at the mountains, seas, rivers and stars; and they pass right by themselves without astonishment.
loved
Better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all.
abroad admiration admire circuits compass heights men mighty themselves tides
Men go abroad to admire the heights of mountains, the mighty billows of the sea, the broad tides of rivers, the compass of the ocean, and the circuits of the stars, and pass themselves by.
cauldron ears sang
To Carthage I came, where there sang all around my ears a cauldron of unholy loves.
aspire begin great
You aspire to great things? Begin with little ones.