Behold, now, how foolish it is, in so great an abundance of the truest opinions which can be extracted from these words, rashly to affirm which of them Moses particularly meant; and with pernicious contentions to offend charity itself, on account of which he hath spoken all the things whose words we endeavor to explain!

— Augustine of Hippo

But if you do not wish to die of thirst in the desert, drink charity. This is the fountain the Lord has willed to place here, lest we faint on the way, and we shall drink it more abundantly when we come to the Fatherland.

— Augustine of Hippo

But I was immobilized—less by another’s static imposition than by my own static will. For the enemy had in thrall my power to choose, which he had used to make a chain for binding me. From bad choices an urge arises; and the urge, yielded to, becomes a compulsion; and the compulsion, resisted, becomes a slavery—each link in this process connected with the others, which is why I call it a chain—and that chain had a tyrannical grip around me. The new will I felt stirring in me, a will to 'give you free worship' and enjoy what I yearned for, my God, my only reliable happiness, could not break away from the will made strong by long dominance. Two wills were mine, old and new, of the flesh, of the spirit, each warring on the other, and between their dissonances was my soul disintegrating.

— Augustine of Hippo

But perhaps there are insensitive hearts, still incapable of receiving this Light because the weight of their sins prevents them from seeing it. Let them not imagine that they Light is absent because they do not see it, for on account of their sins they are in darkness. ‘And the Light shone in the darkness, and the darkness understood it not’ (In 1:5). Therefore, Brothers, like the blind man exposed to the sun, the sun being present to him but he is absent from the sun, so the insensitive one, the sinner, the impious has a blind heart.

— Augustine of Hippo

Can human folly harbor a more arrogant or ungrateful thought than the notion that whereas God makes man beautiful in body, man makes himself pure in heart?

— Augustine of Hippo

Christ is not valued at all, unless he is valued above all.

— Augustine of Hippo

Do not feel surprise at being schooled amid toil: you are being schooled for a wondrous destiny.

— Augustine of Hippo

Do they desire to join me in Thanksgiving when they hear how, by your gift, I have come close to you, and do they pray for me when they hear how I am held back by my own weight? ... A brotherly mind will love in me what you teach being lovable, and will regret in me what you teach being regrettable. This is a mark of a Christian brother's mind, not an outsider's--not that of 'the sons of aliens whose mouth speaks vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of iniquity' (PS. 143:7 f.). A brotherly person rejoices on my account when he approves me, but when he disapproves, he is loving me. To such people I will reveal myself. They will take heart from my good traits, and sigh with sadness at my bad ones. My good points are instilled by you and are your gifts. My bad points are my faults and your judgements on them. Let them take heart from the one and regret the other. Let both praise and tears ascend in your sight from brotherly hearts, your censers. ... But you Lord... Make perfect my imperfections

— Augustine of Hippo

Every day my conscience makes confession relying on the hope of Your mercy as more to be trusted than its own innocence.

— Augustine of Hippo

Every good man resists others in those points in which he resists himself.

— Augustine of Hippo