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C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.

St. Augustine

A wanton eye is a messenger of an unchaste heart.

All our life goeth like Penelope’s web,—what one hour effects the next destroys.

And there, in Abraham’s bosom, whatever it be which that bosom signifies, lives my sweet friend. For what other place is there for such a soul?

As the soul is the life of the body, so God is the life of the soul. As therefore the body perishes when the soul leaves it, so the soul dies when God departs from it.

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.

Before God can deliver us from ourselves, we must undeceive ourselves.

Blessedness consists in the accomplishment of our desires, and in our having only regular desires.

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.

Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.

God has promised forgiveness to your repentance; but He has not promised to-morrow to your procrastination.

God will not suffer man to have the knowledge of things to come; for if he had prescience of his prosperity, he would be careless; and, understanding of his adversity, he would be senseless.

Habit, if not resisted, soon becomes necessity.

He that is not jealous is not in love.

He that loveth little prayeth little; he that loveth much prayeth much.

How can He grant you what you do not desire to receive?

Humble wedlock is far better than proud virginity.

I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are very wise and very beautiful; but I never read in either of them, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden.”

I sought Thee at a distance, and did not know that Thou wast near. I sought Thee abroad, and behold, Thou wast within me.

In doing what we ought we deserve no praise, because it is our duty.

It is love that asks, that seeks, that knocks, that finds, and that is faithful to what it finds.

It is no advantage to be near the light if the eyes are closed.

Marriage with peace is the world’s paradise.

Poverty is the load of some, and wealth is the load of others, perhaps the greater load of the two. It may weigh them to perdition. Bear the load of thy neighbor’s poverty, and let him bear with thee the load of thy wealth. Thou lightenest thy load by lightening his.

Punishment, that is the justice for the unjust.

The moral conscience is a truly primitive faculty; it is a particular manner of feeling which corresponds to the goodness of moral actions, as taste is a manner of feeling which corresponds to beauty. Love men, immolate error.

The multitude of fools is a protection to the wise.

The rich are like beasts of burden, carrying treasure all day, and at the night of death unladen; they carry to their grave only the bruises and marks of their toil.

The sufficiency of my merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient.

The world is a great book, of which they that never stir from home read only a page.

Thou hast made us for Thyself, and the heart never resteth till it findeth rest in Thee.

Trust not the world, for it never payeth that it promiseth.

Wellnigh the whole substance of the Christian discipline is humility.

Where is the thief who cannot find bad when he hunts for it?

Wine-drinking is the mother of all mischief, the root of crimes, the spring of vices, the whirlwind of the brain, the overthrow of the sense, the tempest of the tongue, the ruin of the body, the shame of life, the stain of honesty, and the plague and corruption of the soul.