Top 500 Saint Augustine Quotes (2026 Update)
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251. “Human law cannot punish or forbid all evil, since while doing away with evils it would do away with many good things, which would hinder the advance of the common good.”

— Saint Augustine

252. “The desire for fame tempts even noble minds.”

— Saint Augustine

253. “We do not sin when we adore Christ in the Eucharist; we do sin when we do not adore Christ in the Eucharist.”

— Saint Augustine

254. “God Almighty would in no way permit evil in His works were He not so omnipotent and good that even out of evil He could work good.”

— Saint Augustine

255. “Justice being taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great robberies? For what are robberies themselves, but little kingdoms.”

— Saint Augustine

256. “Put no faith in salvation through the political order.”

— Saint Augustine

257. “We were ensnared by the wisdom of the serpent; we are set free by the foolishness of God .”

— Saint Augustine

258. “The same thing which is now called Christian religion existed among the ancients. They have begun to call ‘Christian’ the true religion which existed before.”

— Saint Augustine

259. “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

260. “He that is kind is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king.”

— Saint Augustine

261. “Interior intimo meo et superior summo meo.”

— Saint Augustine

262. “Truth is not private property.”

— Saint Augustine

263. “Fill yourselves first and then only will you be able to give to others.”

— Saint Augustine

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264. “You cannot attain to charity except through humility.”

— Saint Augustine

265. “Make friends with angels.”

— Saint Augustine

266. “This awful catastrophe is not the end but the beginning. History does not end so. It is the way its chapters open.”

— Saint Augustine

267. “Ignorance itself is without a doubt a sin for those who do not wish to understand; for those who, however, cannot understand, it is the punishment of sin.”

— Saint Augustine

268. “Every city is a living body.”

— Saint Augustine

269. “All those who belong to Jesus Christ are fastened with Him to the cross.”

— Saint Augustine

270. “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

271. “Humility must accompany all our actions, must be with us everywhere; for as soon as we glory in our good works they are of no further value to our advancement in virtue.”

— Saint Augustine

272. “We can know what God is not, but we cannot know what He is.”

— Saint Augustine

273. “The diversity of language alienates man from man.”

— Saint Augustine

274. “Drunkenness is a flattering devil, a sweet poison, a pleasant sin, which whosoever hath, hath not himself, which whosoever doth commit, doth not commit sin, but he himself is wholly sin.”

— Saint Augustine

275. “Forgiveness is the remission of sins. For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again.”

— Saint Augustine

276. “Free curiosity is of more value than harsh discipline.”

— Saint Augustine

277. “For so it is, O Lord my God, I measure it! But what it is I measure, I do not know.”

— Saint Augustine

278. “Between urine and filth we are born.”

— Saint Augustine

279. “There never can have been, and never can be, and there never shall be any sin without pride.”

— Saint Augustine

280. “Longing desire prayeth always, though the tongue be silent. If thou art ever longing, thou art ever praying.”

— Saint Augustine

281. “The Devil often transforms himself into an angel to tempt men, some for their instruction, some for their ruin.”

— Saint Augustine

282. “The will is truly free, when it is not the slave of vices and sins.”

— Saint Augustine

283. “The good Christian should beware of mathematicians and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and confine man in the bonds of Hell.”

— Saint Augustine

284. “To touch God a little with our mind is a great blessing, to grasp him is impossible.”

— Saint Augustine

285. “All plenty which is not my God is poverty to me.”

— Saint Augustine

286. “The arrogance is not greatness but swelling; and the swelling seems big but it’s not healthy.”

— Saint Augustine

287. “No eulogy is due to him who simply does his duty and nothing more.”

— Saint Augustine

288. “Do not follow any road, but that which Christ trod. This road seems hard, but it is safe.”

— Saint Augustine

289. “Only He who made man makes man happy.”

— Saint Augustine

290. “Before God can deliver us we must undeceive ourselves.”

— Saint Augustine

291. “Let those who think I have said too little and those who think I have said too much, forgive me; and let those who think I have said just enough thank God with me.”

— Saint Augustine

292. “Venerate the martyrs, praise, love, proclaim, honor them. But worship the God of the martyrs.”

— Saint Augustine

293. “O Lord, help me to be pure, but not yet.”

— Saint Augustine

294. “He that loveth little prayeth little, he that loveth much prayeth much.”

— Saint Augustine

295. “The honors of this world, what are they but puff, and emptiness, and peril of falling?”

— Saint Augustine

296. “It is not by change of place that we can come nearer to Him who is in every place, but by the cultivation of pure desires and virtuous habits.”

— Saint Augustine

297. “Because a thing is eloquently expressed it should not be taken to be as necessarily true; nor because it is uttered with stammering lips should it be supposed false.”

— Saint Augustine

298. “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.”

— Saint Augustine

299. “I had a clear idea about what time is till I was asked to explain it and ceased to understand it altogether as soon as I began explaining it.”

— Saint Augustine

300. “Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending.”

— Saint Augustine