Background Image

...

For If God Is Man's Chief Good, Which You Cannot Deny, It Clearly Follows, Since To Seek The Chief Good Is To Live Well, That To Live Well Is Nothing Else But To Love God With All The Heart, With All The Soul, With All The Mind.

-Saint Augustine

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

For If God Is

Saint Augustine

...

For If God Is Man's Chief Good, Which You Cannot Deny, It Clearly Follows, Since To Seek The Chief Good Is To Live Well, That To Live Well Is Nothing Else But To Love God With All The Heart, With All The Soul, With All The Mind.

Views: 49059

Topic

More From Saint Augustine

I Have Read In Plato And Cicero Sayings That Are Wise And Very Beautiful; But I Have Never Read In Either Of Them: Come Unto Me All Ye That Labor And Are Heavy Laden.

I Once Laboured Hard For The Free Will Of Man, Until The Grace Of God At Length Overcame Me.

Often The Contempt Of Vainglory Becomes A Source Of Even More Vainglory, For It Is Not Being Scorned When The Contempt Is Something One Is Proud Of.

If You Excuse Yourself In Confession, You Shut Up Sin Within Your Soul, And Shut Out Pardon.

So While He Made You Without You, He Doesn't Justify You Without You.

Men Go Forth To Marvel At The Height Of Mountains, And The Huge Waves Of The Sea, The Broad Flow Of The Rivers, The Vastness Of The Ocean, The Orbits Of The Stars, And Yet They Neglect To Marvel At Themselves. Variant: 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.

A Person Can Do Other Things Against His Will, But Belief Is Possible Only In One Who Is Willing.

In The Usual Course Of Study I Had Come To A Book Of A Certain Cicero.

If We Tread Our Vices Under Our Feet, We Make Of Them A Ladder By Which To Rise To Higher Things.

By The Fall A Poison Was Handed To Mankind Through A Woman [eve], By The Redemption Man Was Given Salvation Also Through A Woman [mary].

Oh, Beauty, Ever Ancient And Ever New.

Just As It Is Agreed That We All Wish To Be Happy, So It Is That We All Wish To Be Wise, Since No One Without Wisdom Is Happy.

What Thou Meanest By Seizing The Whole Earth; But Because I Do It With A Petty Ship, I Am Called A Robber, Whilst Thou Who Dost It With A Great Fleet Art Styled Emperor.

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.

Other Sins Find Their Vent In The Accomplishment Of Evil Deeds, Whereas Pride Lies In Wait For Good Deeds, To Destroy Them.

Where Scripture Speaks Of The World's Creation, It Is Not Plainly Said Whether Or When The Angels Were Created; But If Mention Is Made, It Is Implicit Under The Name Of "heaven," When It Is Said, "in The Beginning God Created The Heavens And The Earth."

You Say To Me 'show Me Your God.' I Answer You, 'everything You See In Your Heart That Might Sadden God, Remove.'

To Withhold Forgiveness Is To Take Poison And Expect The Unforgiven To Die.

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.

The Mere Change Of Custom, Even Though It May Be Of Advantage In Some Respects, Unsettles Men By Reason Of The Novelty: Therefore, If It Brings No Advantage, It Does Much Harm By Unprofitably Disturbing The Church.

The Sacraments Are The Salvation Of Those Who Use Them Rightly, And The Damnation Of Those Who Misuse Them.

Whatever Skills I Have Acquired, Whatever Gifts I Have Been Given, I Place Them At Your Service.

The Law Is Not In Fault, But Our Evil And Wicked Nature; Even As A Heap Of Lime Is Still And Quiet Until Water Is Poured On It, But Then It Begins To Smoke And Burn, Not From The Fault Of The Water, But From The Nature Of The Lime, Which Will Not Endure It.

Lord Jesus, Don't Let Me Lie When I Say That I Love You.....and Protect Me, For Today I Could Betray You.

Love, And He Will Draw Near; Love, And He Will Dwell Within You.

What Does Love Look Like? It Has The Hands To Help Others. It Has The Feet To Hasten To The Poor And Needy. It Has Eyes To See Misery And Want. It Has The Ears To Hear The Sighs And Sorrows Of Men. That Is What Love Looks Like.

Will Is To Grace As The Horse Is To The Rider.

We Can Know What God Is Not, But We Cannot Know What He Is.

The Good Man, Though A Slave, Is Free; The Wicked, Though He Reigns, Is A Slave.

To Wisdom Belongs The Intellectual Apprehension Of Eternal Things; To Knowledge, The Rational Knowledge Of Temporal Things.

The Law Detects, Grace Alone Conquers Sin.

Moreover, From The Time When He Said, 'except A Man Be Born Of Water And Of The Spirit, He Cannot Enter Into The Kingdom Of Heaven;' And Again, 'he That Loseth His Life For My Sake Shall Find It; ' No One Becomes A Member Of Christ Except It Be Either By Baptism In Christ, Or Death For Christ.

Whoever Seems To Himself To Have Understood The Scriptures In Such A Way That He Does Not Build Up That Double Love Of God And Neighbor Has Not Yet Understood.

The Old (testament) Is In The New (testament) Revealed, The New Is In The Old Concealed.

Don't You Believe That There Is In Man A Deep So Profound As To Be Hidden Even To Him In Whom It Is?

No Man Has A Right To Lead Such A Life Of Contemplation As To Forget In His Own Ease The Service Due To His Neighbor.

Indeed, Man Wishes To Be Happy Even When He So Lives As To Make Happiness Impossible.

Do Not Say That You Have Chaste Minds If You Have Unchaste Eyes, Because An Unchaste Eye Is The Messenger Of An Unchaste Heart.

If We Did Not Have Rational Souls, We Would Not Be Able To Believe.

The Kingdom Of Heaven, O Man, Requires No Other Price Than Yourself. The Value Of It Is Yourself. Give Yourself For It And You Shall Have It.

Since Love Grows Within You, So Beauty Grows. For Love Is The Beauty Of The Soul.

Doubt Is But Another Element Of Faith.

It Was Pride That Changed Angels Into Devils; It Is Humility That Makes Men As Angels.

We Speak, But It Is God Who Teaches.

A Man May Lose The Good Things Of This Life Against His Will; But If He Loses The Eternal Blessings, He Does So With His Own Consent.

You Cannot Attain To Charity Except Through Humility.

Try As They May To Savor The Taste Of Eternity, Their Thoughts Still Twist And Turn Upon The Ebb And Flow Of Things In Past And Future Time. But If Only Their Minds Could Be Seized And Held Steady, They Would Be Still For A While And, For That Short Moment, They Would Glimse The Splendor Of Eternity, Which Is Forever Still.

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.

Samson Crushed Himself And His Enemies To Death Beneath The Ruins Of A Building. He Can Only Be Excused On The Grounds That The Spirit Of The Lord, Who Wrought Miracles Through Him, Had Bidden Him To Do So. But, Apart From Such Men Excepted By The Command Of A Just Law In General Or Of God, The Very Source Of Justice, In A Special Case, Any One Who Kills A Human Being, Himself Or Another, Is Guilty Of Murder.

Only He Who Made Man Makes Man Happy.

All Plenty Which Is Not My God Is Poverty To Me.

Overconsumption

... At The Beginning Of The Human Race The Woman Was Made Of A Rib Taken From The Side Of The Man While He Slept; For It Seemed Fit That Even Then Christ And His Church Should Be Foreshadowed In This Event. For That Sleep Of The Man Was The Death Of Christ, Whose Side, As He Hung Lifeless Upon The Cross, Was Pierced With A Spear, And There Flowed From It Blood And Water, And These We Know To Be The Sacraments By Which The Church Is Built Up.

Be Always Displeased At What Thou Art, If Thou Desirest To Attain To What Thou Art Not.

In The Absence Of Justice, What Is Sovereignty But Organized Robbery?

Nobody Should Ever Doubt That In The Washing Of Rebirth (titus 3:5) Absolutely All Sins, From The Least To The Greatest, Are Altogether Forgiven.

Late Have I Loved You, O Beauty Ever Ancient And Ever New! Late Have I Loved You! And, Behold, You Were Within Me, And I Out Of Myself, And There I Searched For You.

The Head And The Body Are Christ Wholly And Entirely. The Head Is The Only Begotten Son Of God, The Body Is His Church; The Bridegroom And The Bride, Two In One Flesh. All Who Dissent From The Scriptures Concerning Christ, Although They May Be Found In All Places In Which The Church Is Found, Are Not In The Church; And Again All Those Who Agree With The Scriptures Concerning The Head, And Do Not Communicate In The Unity Of The Church, Are Not In The Church.

It Is Not The Being Seen Of Men That Is Wrong, But Doing These Things For The Purpose Of Being Seen Of Men. The Problem With The Hypocrite Is His Motivation.

Faith Is To Believe What You Do Not See; The Reward Of This Faith Is To See What You Believe.

There Never Can Have Been, And Never Can Be, And There Never Shall Be Any Sin Without Pride.

Dilige Et Quod Vis Fac. (love And Then What You Will, Do.)

No One Reaches The Kingdom Of Heaven Except By Humility

When, Therefore, Man Lives According To Man, Not According To God, He Is Like The Devil.

No One Knows What He Himself Is Made Of, Except His Own Spirit Within Him, Yet There Is Still Some Part Of Him Which Remains Hidden Even From His Own Spirit; But You, Lord, Know Everything About A Human Being Because You Have Made Him...let Me, Then, Confess What I Know About Myself, And Confess Too What I Do Not Know, Because What I Know Of Myself I Know Only Because You Shed Light On Me, And What I Do Not Know I Shall Remain Ignorant About Until My Darkness Becomes Like Bright Noon Before Your Face.

Let Our Lives Be Good, And The Times Are Good. We Make Our Times; Such As We Are, Such Are The Times.

On The Altar You Are Looking At The Same Thing As You Saw There Last Night. You Have Not Heard, However, What This Is, What It Signifies, Or About The Greatness Of The Reality Of Which It Is A Sacrament. Your Eyes Are Looking At Bread And Cup. This Is The Evidence Before Your Physical Sight. But Your Faith Must Be Instructed Concerning It- This Bread Being Christ 's Body And The Cup Containing His Blood. Though Perhaps These Words May Be Enough To Initiate Faith, Faith Must Be Further Instructed In Accordance With The Prophet's Words: 'believe That You May Understand'

The One Who Is Good, Is Free Even Being A Slave; The One Who Is Bad Remains A Slave Even Being A King.

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.

Our Lord Reserved To Himself Certain Things Which He Would Do In Due Time In A Manner Outside The Course And Order Of Nature, So That They Would Wonder And Be Astonished At Seeing Not Great But Unusual Things, Who Are Unmoved By Things Daily Seen. For The Government Of The World Is A Greater Miracle Than Feeding Five Thousand Men From Five Loaves; Yet At The Former No One Wonders, The Latter Astonishes All Men: Not As A Greater Wonder, But As A Rarer.

Love Has Reasons That Reason Knows Not.

The Devil Often Transforms Himself Into An Angel To Tempt Men, Some For Their Instruction, Some For Their Ruin.

Don't Let Your Life Give Evidence Against Your Tongue. Sing With Your Voices... Sing Also With Your Conduct.

The Customs Of God's People And The Institutions Of Our Ancestors Are To Be Considered As Laws. And Those Who Throw Contempt On The Customs Of The Church Ought To Be Punished As Those Who Disobey The Law Of God.

Why Is It That Man Desires To Be Made Sad, Beholding Doleful And Tragical Things, Which Yet Himself Would By No Means Suffer?

Let Him Who Desires To Be Harsh In Making Demands Upon His Debtors Consider That He Is God’s Debtor.

If You Should Ask Me What Are The Ways Of God, I Would Tell You That The First Is Humility, The Second Is Humility, And The Third Is Humility. Not That There Are No Other Precepts To Give, But If Humility Does Not Preceed All That We Do, Our Efforts Are Fruitless.

The Angels Surround And Help The Priest When He Is Celebrating Mass.

Near Our Vineyard There Was A Pear Tree Laden With Fruit That Was Not Attractive In Either Flavor Or Form. One Night, When I [at The Age Of Sixteen] Had Played Until Dark On The Sandlot With Some Other Juvenile Delinquents, We Went To Shake That Tree And Carry Off Its Fruit. From It We Carried Off Huge Loads, Not To Feast On, But To Throw To The Pigs, Although We Did Eat A Few Ourselves. We Did It Just Because It Was Forbidden.

Lord, Thou Madest Us For Thyself, And We Can Find No Rest Till We Find Rest In Thee.

It Was In His Flesh That Christ Walked Among Us And It Is His Flesh That He Has Given Us To Eat For Our Salvation; But No One Eats Of This Flesh Without Having First Adored It . . . And Not Only Do We Not Sin In Thus Adoring It, But We Would Be Sinning If We Did Not Do So.

I Would Not Believe In The Gospel, If The Authority Of The Catholic Church Did Not Bid Me To Do So.

Since God Is The Highest Good, He Would Not Allow Any Evil To Exist In His Works Unless His Omnipotence And Goodness Were Such As To Bring Good Even Out Of Evil.

Unhappy Is The Soul Enslaved By The Love Of Anything That Is Mortal.

The Same Divine Authority That Forbids The Killing Of A Human Being Establishes Certain Exceptions, As When God Authorizes Killing By A General Law Or When He Gives An Explicit Commission To An Individual For A Limited Time.

All The Dancer's Gestures Are Signs Of Things, And The Dance Called Rational, Because It Aptly Signifies And Displays Something Over And Above The Pleasure Of The Senses.

Order Your Soul; Reduce Your Wants; Live In Charity; Associate In Christian Community; Obey The Laws; Trust In Providence.

Every City Is A Living Body.

It Is Not The Punishment But The Cause That Makes The Martyr.

Two Works Of Mercy Set A Person Free: Forgive And You Will Be Forgiven, And Give And You Will Receive.

His Knowledge Is Not Like Ours, Which Has Three Tenses; Present, Past, And Future. God's Knowledge Has No Change Or Variation.

The Ministry Is A Weight From Which Even An Angel Might Shrink

Without God, Man Cannot, And Without Man, God Will Not.

Sin Is Believing The Lie That You Are Self-created, Self-dependent And Self-sustained.

Punishment, That Is The Justice For The Unjust.

We Judge All Things According To The Divine Truth.

God Bids You Not To Commit Lechery, That Is, Not To Have Sex With Any Woman Except Your Wife. You Ask Of Her That She Should Not Have Sex With Anyone Except You -- Yet You Are Not Willing To Observe The Same Restraint In Return.

The Dove Loves When It Quarrels; The Wolf Hates When It Flatters.

It Is Said That There Is No Salvation Outside The Church. Who Denies This? And Therefore Whatever Things Of The Church Are Had Outside The Church Do Not Avail Unto Salvation.

You Aspire To Great Things? Begin With The Little Ones.

He Cannot Have God For His Father Who Will Not Have The Church For His Mother.

What Is Time? If I Am Not Asked, I Know; If I Am Asked, I Don't.

What You Are Must Always Displease You, If You Would Attain To That Which You Are Not.

Purity Of Soul Cannot Be Lost Without Consent.

Recognize In This Bread What Hung On The Cross, And In This Chalice What Flowed From His Side... Whatever Was In Many And Varied Ways Announced Beforehand In The Sacrifices Of The Old Testament Pertains To This One Sacrifice Which Is Revealed In The New Testament.

Thou Must Be Emptied Of That Wherewith Thou Art Full, That Thou Mayest Be Filled With That Whereof Thou Art Empty.

We Made Bad Use Of Immortality, And So Ended Up Dying; Christ Made Good Use Of Mortality, So That We Might End Up Living.

We Are Certainly In A Common Class With The Beasts; Every Action Of Animal Life Is Concerned With Seeking Bodily Pleasure And Avoiding Pain.

To Touch God A Little With Our Mind Is A Great Blessing, To Grasp Him Is Impossible.

Charity Is No Substitute For Justice Withheld.

You Have Enemies. For Who Can Live On This Earth Without Them? Take Heed To Yourselves: Love Them. In No Way Can Your Enemy So Hurt You By His Violence, As You Hurt Yourself If You Love Him Not.

If You Believe What You Like In The Gospels, And Reject What You Don't Like, It Is Not The Gospel You Believe, But Yourself.

Do You Wish To Rise? Begin By Descending. You Plan A Tower That Will Pierce The Clouds? Lay First The Foundation Of Humility.

Inspirational Life

Custom Is Second Nature.

Wonderful Is The Depth Of Thy Words, Whose Surface Is Before Us, Gently Leading On The Little Ones: And Yet A Wonderful Deepness, O My God, A Wonderful Deepness. It Is Awe To Look Into It; Even An Awfulness Of Honour, And A Trembling Of Love.

We Were Ensnared By The Wisdom Of The Serpent; We Are Set Free By The Foolishness Of God .

Remember This. When People Choose To Withdraw Far From A Fire, The Fire Continues To Give Warmth, But They Grow Cold. When People Choose To Withdraw Far From Light, The Light Continues To Be Bright In Itself But They Are In Darkness. This Is Also The Case When People Withdraw From God.

God Judged It Better To Bring Good Out Of Evil Than To Suffer No Evil To Exist.

Now, Justification In This Life Is Given To Us According To These Three Things: First By The Laver Of Regeneration By Which All Sins Are Forgiven; Then, By A Struggle With The Faults From Whose Guilt We Have Been Absolved; The Third, When Our Prayer Is Heard, In Which We Say: 'forgive Us Our Debts,' Because However Bravely We Fight Against Our Faults, We Are Men; But The Grace Of God So Aids As We Fight In This Corruptible Body That There Is Reason For His Hearing Us As We Ask Forgiveness.

We Who Preach And Write, Do So In A Manner Different From Which The Scriptures Have Been Written. We Write While We Make Progress.we Learn Something New Every Day. We Speak As We Still Knock For Understanding...if Anyone Criticizes Me When I Have Said What Is Right, He Does Me An Injustice. But I Would Be More Angry With The One Who Praises Me And Takes What I Have Written For Gospel Truth Than I Would Be With The One Who Criticizes Me Unfairly.

Poetry Is Devil's Wine.

He Who Has God Has Everything; He Who Has Everything But God Has Nothing.

Make Me A Captive Lord, Then I Shall Be Truly Free.

O That Men Would Know Themselves To Be Men; And That He That Glorieth Would Glory In The Lord.

If They Find A Christian Mistaken In A Field Which They Themselves Know Well And Hear Him Maintaining His Foolish Opinions About Our Books, How Are They Going To Believe Those Books In Matters Concerning The Resurrection Of The Dead, The Hope Of Eternal Life, And The Kingdom Of Heaven.

Choose To Love Whomsoever Thou Wilt: All Else Will Follow.

The Diversity Of Language Alienates Man From Man

Love Is The Beauty Of The Soul.

What Can Be Hoped For Which Is Not Believed?

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.

Whoever, Therefore, Thinks That He Understands The Divine Scriptures Or Any Part Of Them So That It Does Not Build On The Double Love Of God And Of Our Neighbor Does Not Understand It At All. Thus A Man Supported By Faith, Hope, And Charity, With An Unshaken Hold Upon Them Does Not Need The Scriptures. . . And Many Live By These Three Things In Solitude Without Books.

Hell Was Made For The Inquisitive.

For If God Is Man's Chief Good, Which You Cannot Deny, It Clearly Follows, Since To Seek The Chief Good Is To Live Well, That To Live Well Is Nothing Else But To Love God With All The Heart, With All The Soul, With All The Mind.

I Inquired What Wickedness Is, And I Didn't Find A Substance, But A Perversity Of Will Twisted Away From The Highest Substance - You, O God - Towards Inferior Things, Rejecting Its Own Inner Life And Swelling With External Matters.

Sin Is Looking For The Right Thing In The Wrong Place.

Let Us Leave A Little Room For Reflection In Our Lives, Room Too For Silence. Let Us Look Within Ourselves And See Whether There Is Some Delightful Hidden Place Inside Where We Can Be Free Of Noise And Argument. Let Us Hear The Word Of God In Stillness And Perhaps We Will Then Come To Understand It.

God Is Not A Deceiver, That He Should Offer To Support Us, And Then, When We Lean Upon Him, Should Slip Away From Us.

Really Great Things, When Discussed By Little Men, Can Usually Make Such Men Grow Big.

It Is Love That Asks, That Seeks, That Knocks, That Finds, And That Is Faithful To What It Finds.

To Abstain From Sin When One Can No Longer Sin Is To Be Forsaken By Sin, Not To Forsake It.

If Faith Fails, Prayer Perishes.

I Believe In Order To Understand

The Love Of Our Neighbor Hath Its Bounds In Each Man's Love Of Himself.

I Have Said Before, And I Shall Say Again, That I Write This Book For Love Of Your Love.

Go Forth On Your Path, As It Exists Only Through Your Walking.

Where Was My Heart To Flee For Refuge From My Heart? Whither Was I To Fly, Where I Would Not Follow? In What Place Should I Not Be Prey To Myself?

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.

Try To Acquire The Virtues You Believe Lacking In Your Brothers. Then You Will No Longer See Their Defects, For You Will No Longer Have Them Yourself.

Thou Hast Created Us For Thyself, And Our Heart Is Not Quiet Until It Rests In Thee.

Beware Of Bad Catholics.

Let Us Therefore Yield Ourselves And Bow To The Authority Of The Holy Scriptures, Which Can Neither Err Nor Deceive.

What Then, Is Correctness Of Speech But The Maintenance Of The Practice Of Others, As Established By The Authority Of Ancient Speakers? But The Weaker Men Are, The More They Are Troubled By Such Matters. Their Weakness Stems From A Desire To Appear Learned, Not With A Knowledge Of Things, By Which We Are Edified, But With A Knowledge Of Signs, By Which It Is Difficult Not To Be Puffed Up In Some Way; Even A Knowledge Of Things Often Makes People Boastful, Unless Their Necks Are Held Down By The Lord's Yoke.

Longing Desire Prayeth Always, Though The Tongue Be Silent. If Thou Art Ever Longing, Thou Art Ever Praying.

Beauty Is The Brilliance Of Truth.

The Fruits Of Charity Are Joy, Peace, And Mercy; Charity Demands Beneficence And Fraternal Correction; It Is Benevolence; It Fosters Reciprocity And Remains Disinterested And Generous; It Is Friendship And Communion: Love Is Itself The Fulfillment Of All Our Works. There Is The Goal; That Is Why We Run: We Run Toward It, And Once We Reach It, In It We Shall Find Rest.

The Sufficiency Of My Merit Is To Know That My Merit Is Not Sufficient.

The Greatest Evil Is Physical Pain.

Two Criminals Were Crucified With Christ. One Was Saved; Do Not Despair. One Was Not; Do Not Presume.

The Custom Of Mother Church In Baptizing Infants Is Certainly Not To Be Scorned, Nor Is It To Be Regarded In Any Way As Superfluous, Nor Is It To Be Believed That Its Tradition Is Anything Except Apostolic.

And I Will Ask The Father, And He Shall Give You Another Paraclete, Seeing He Saith This Of The Holy Spirit, Whom Except We Have, We Can Neither Love God, Nor Keep His Commandments?

Disturbers Are To Be Rebuked, The Low Spirited To Be Encouraged, The Infirm To Be Supported, Objectors Confuted, The Treacherous Guarded Against, The Unskilled Taught, The Lazy Aroused, The Contentious Restrained, The Haughty Repressed, The Poor Relieved, The Oppressed Liberated, The Good Approved, The Evil Borne With, And All Are To Be Loved!

Therefore Once For All This Short Command Is Given To You. 'love And Do What You Will.' If You Keep Silent, Keep Silent By Love; If You Speak, Speak By Love; If You Correct, Correct By Love; If You Pardon, Pardon By Love: Let Love Be Rooted In You, And From The Root Nothing But Good Can Grow.

We Cannot Pass Our Guardian Angel's Bounds, Resigned Or Sullen, He Will Hear Our Sighs.

If The Future And The Past Really Exist, Where Are They?

For You [god] Are Infinite And Never Change. In You "today" Never Comes To An End: And Yet Our "today" Does Come To An End In You, Because Time, As Well As Everything Else, Exists In You. If It Did Not, It Would Have No Means Of Passing. And Since Your Years Never Come To An End, For You They Are Simply "today."

It Is The Function Of Perfection To Make One Know One's Imperfection.

Every Good And True Christian Should Understand That Wherever He May Find The Truth It Is His Lord's.

Therefore, Give To The Poor. I Beg You, I Admonish You, I Charge You, I Command You To Give.

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.

Is Any Man Skillful Enough To Have Fashioned Himself?

It Will Not Be Held Against You That You Are Ignorant Against Your Will, But That You Neglect To Seek Out What It Is That Makes You Ignorant; Not That You Cannot Bring Together Your Wounded Limbs, But That You Reject Him That Would Heal Them.

Who Would Not Shudder If He Were Given The Choice Of Eternal Death Or Life Again As A Child ? Who Would Not Choose To Die ?

This Is The Very Perfection Of A Man, To Find Out His Own Imperfections.

Keep On Adding, Keep On Walking, Keep On Progressing: Do Not Delay On The Road, Do Not Go Back, Do Not Deviate.

To Dye Oneself With Paints In Order To Have A Rosier Or A Paler Complexion Is A Lying Counterfeit.

Why Is It That We Remember With Difficulty And Without Difficulty Forget? Learn With Difficulty And Without Difficulty Remain Ignorant?

Christ Was Born Of A Woman Without The Man.

Patience Is The Companion Of Wisdom.

It Is Salutary For Us To Learn To Hold Cheap Such Things, Be They Good Or Evil, As Attach Indifferently To Good Men And Bad, And To Covet Those Good Things Which Belong Only To Good Men, And Flee Those Evils Which Belong Only To Evil Men.

If A Shameless Woman Expects To Be Defiled And Then Dies Of Her Fierce Love Because You Do Not Consent, Will Chastity Also Be Homicide?

It Is Better To Be Cured In The Church Than To Be Cut Off From This Body As Incurable ... For, As Long As The Member Is Still Attached To The Body, His Cure Is Not Beyond Hope, But When He Has Been Cut Off, He Can Neither Be Treated Nor Cured.

The Fellow Who Eggs You On To Avenge Yourself Will Rob You Of What You Were Going To Say - As We Forgive Our Debtors . When You Have Forfeited That, All Your Sins Will Be Held Against You; Absolutely Nothing Is Forgiven.

The One Who Is Our Very Life Descended Into Our World, And Bore Our Death, And Slew It With The Abundance Of His Own Life. Thundering, He Called Out To Us To Return To Him In Heaven.

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.

Whoever Possesses God Is Happy.

O Lord, Help Me To Be Pure, But Not Yet.

As To The Fable That There Are Antipodes, That Is To Say, Men On The Opposite Side Of The Earth Where The Sun Rises When It Sets To Us, Men Who Walk With Their Feet Opposite Ours, That Is On No Ground Credible. Even If Some Unknown Landmass Is There, And Not Just Ocean, There Was Only One Pair Of Original Ancestors, And It Is Inconceivable That Such Distant Regions Should Have Been Peopled By Adam's Descendants.

When The King Asked Him What He Meant By Infesting The Sea, The Pirate Defiantly Replied: The Same As You Do When You Infest The Whole World; But Because I Do It With A Little Ship I Am Called A Robber, And Because You Do It With A Great Fleet, You Are An Emperor.

Do What You Can And Pray For What You Cannot Yet Do.

God Does Not Give Heed To The Ambitiousness Of Our Prayers, Because He Is Always Ready To Give To Us His Light, Not A Visible Light But An Intellectual And Spiritual One; But We Are Not Always Ready To Receive It When We Turn Aside And Down To Other Things Out Of A Desire For Temporal Things.

Nothing, Therefore, Happens Unless The Omnipotent Wills It To Happen. He Either Permits It To Happen, Or He Brings It About Himself.

If 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?

We Do Not Sin When We Adore Christ In The Eucharist; We Do Sin When We Do Not Adore Christ In The Eucharist.

I Do Not Doubt That All Those Who Have Received Baptism Anywhere And From Whomever Do Have Baptism, As Long As It Was Consecrated With The Words Of The Gospel And They Received It Without Pretence On Their Part And With Some Degree Of Faith. However, It Would Not Avail Them For Their Spiritual Salvation If They Were Lacking In That Charity By Which They Might Be Implanted In The Catholic Church.

God Bestows More Consideration On The Purity Of The Intention With Which Our Actions Are Performed Than On The Actions Themselves.

Purity And Love

The Entire Most Beautiful Order Of Things That Are Very Good, When Their Measures Have Been Accomplished, Is To Pass Away.

There Is No Possible Source Of Evil Except Good.

Any Woman Who Does Not Give Birth To As Many Children As She Is Capable Is Guilty Of Murder.

Mary Heard God's Word And Kept It, And So She Is Blessed. She Kept God's Truth In Her Mind, A Nobler Thing Than Carrying His Body In Her Womb.

For It Is Better To Suffer A Little Want Than To Have Too Much.

Give Me Chastity And Continence, But Not Yet.

Trending Author

Nicholas D. Kristof

Nikita Khrushchev

Lucy Maud Montgomery

Category