Augustine of Hippo

Thou awakest us to delight in Thy praise; for Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee.

And therefore, as the plan of this work we have undertaken requires, and as occasion offers, we must speak also of the earthly city, which, though it be mistress of the nations, is itself ruled by its lust of rule.

The weakness then of infant limbs, not its will, is its innocence.

Wherefore all these last offices and ceremonies that concern the dead, the careful funeral arrangements, and the equipment of the tomb, and the pomp of obsequies, are rather the solace of the living than the comfort of the dead.

But woe is thee, thou torrent of human custom! Who shall stand against thee?

Scipio wished you to be hard pressed by an enemy, that you might not abandon yourselves to luxurious manners; but so abandoned are you, that not even when crushed by the enemy is your luxury repressed.

I loved not yet, yet I loved to love, and out of a deep-seated want, I hated myself for wanting not.

I wonder that famous diviner Apollo toiled at so huge a work, and never suspected Laomedon was going to cheat him of his pay.

I became a great riddle to myself, and I asked my soul, why she was so sad, and why she disquieted me sorely: but she knew not what to answer me.

War gave liberty to him who was attacked, to strike if he could; peace granted to the survivors not life, but an unresisting death.

There is no rest, where ye seek it.

Glory they most ardently loved: for it they wished to live, for it they did not hesitate to die.

For fairer is the modesty of a candid mind, than the knowledge of those things which I desired

But a stage-actor would rather delight people by acting plays than take them in by false pretences.

I was becoming more miserable, and Thou nearer.

Thus facts are wont to be converted into fables through false colourings.

Eating and drinking have no pleasure, unless there precede the pinching of hunger and thirst.

There is, then, a wicked mediator, who separates friends, and a good Mediator, who reconciles enemies.

Give me chastity and continency, only not yet.

So that, with these miserable creatures, it is not enough that they are sick, but they boast of their sickness, and are ashamed of the medicine which could heal them.