“Among us, on the other hand, 'the righteous man lives by faith.' Now, if you take away positive affirmation, you take away faith, for without positive affirmation nothing is believed. And there are truths about things unseen, and unless they are believed, we cannot attain to the happy life, which is nothing less than life eternal. It is a question whether we ought to argue with those who profess themselves ignorant not only about the eternity yet to come but also about their present existence, for they [the Academics] even argue that they do not know what they cannot help knowing. For no one can 'not know' that he himself is alive. If he is not alive, he cannot 'not know' about it or anything else at all, because either to know or to 'not know' implies a living subject. But, in such a case, by not positively affirming that they are alive, the skeptics ward off the appearance of error in themselves, yet they do not make errors simply by showing themselves alive; one cannot err who is not alive. That we live is therefore not only true, but it is altogether certain as well. And there are many things that are thus true and certain concerning which, if we withhold positive assent, this ought not to be regarded as a higher wisdom but actually a sort of dementia.”
Augustine of Hippo“No one should be ashamed to admit that they do not know what they do not know, in case while feigning knowledge, they come to deserve to never know.”
Augustine of Hippo, Letters of St. Augustine“Augustine taught that true freedom is not choice or lack of constraint, but being what you are meant to be. Humans were created in the image of God. True freedom, then, is not found in moving away from that image but only in living it out.”
Augustine of Hippo“Time takes no holiday. It does not roll idly by, but through our senses works its own wonders in the mind. Time came and went from one day to the next; in its coming and its passing it brought me other hopes and other memories. [quoted in Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo, p. 54]”
Augustine of Hippo, Confessions“I am no more than a child, but my Father lives for ever and I have a Protector great enough to save me.”
Augustine of Hippo“Do not feel surprise at being schooled amid toil: you are being schooled for a wondrous destiny.”
Augustine of Hippo“it is a higher glory... to stay war itself with a word, than to slay men with the sword, and to procure or maintain peace by peace, not by war.”
Augustine of Hippo, The Political Writings of St. Augustine“Let the Lord your God be your hope – seek for nothing else from him, but let him himself be your hope. There are people who hope from him riches or perishable and transitory honours, in short they hope to get from God things which are not God himself.”
Augustine of Hippo, Daily Readings with St. Augustine“There is no sin unless through a man's own will, and hence the reward when we do right things also of our own ”
Augustine of Hippo, The Manichean Debate: The Works of Saint Augustine“Every visible thing in this world is put in the charge of an Angel.”
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