Collected Meditations
Showing 89 quotesIf I am given a formula, and I am ignorant of its meaning, it cannot teach me anything, but if I already know it what does the formula teach me?— Saint Augustine
Who can map out the various forces at play in one soul? Man is a great depth, O Lord. The hairs of his head are easier by far to count than his feeling, the movements of his heart.— Saint Augustine
Blessedness consists in the accomplishment of our desires, and in our having only regular desires.— Saint Augustine
A thing is not necessarily true because badly uttered, nor false because spoken magnificently.— Saint Augustine
We are certainly in a common class with the beasts; every action of animal life is concerned with seeking bodily pleasure and avoiding pain.— Saint Augustine
Bad company is like a nail driven into a post, which, after the first and second blow, may be drawn out with little difficulty; but being once driven up to the head, the pincers cannot take hold to draw it out, but which can only be done by the destruction of the wood.— Saint Augustine
If two friends ask you to judge a dispute, don't accept, because you will lose one friend; on the other hand, if two strangers come with the same request, accept because you will gain one friend.— Saint Augustine
My mind withdrew its thoughts from experience, extracting itself from the contradictory throng of sensuous images, that it might find out what that light was wherein it was bathed... And thus, with the flash of one hurried glance, it attained to the vision of That Which Is.— Saint Augustine
The desire is thy prayers; and if thy desire is without ceasing, thy prayer will also be without ceasing. The continuance of your longing is the continuance of your prayer.— Saint Augustine
By faithfulness we are collected and wound up into unity within ourselves, whereas we had been scattered abroad in multiplicity.— Saint Augustine
The spiritual virtue of a sacrament is like light; although it passes among the impure, it is not polluted.— Saint Augustine