Saint Augustine of Hippo (354–430) was a Christian philosopher and theologian. This bishop of the City of Hippo was an important figure in the evolution of pagan attitudes into Christian philosophy.
Born in Tagaste in the Roman province of Numidia in North Africa, now Algeria, to a pagan father and a Christian mother, Augustine converted to Christianity at the age of 31 under the influence of Bishop Ambrose of Milan. Augustine desired a quiet life of philosophizing about theology and writing books. However, when he moved to the port town of Hippo to establish a monastery, he was required to take over the duties of the local bishop. He regretted that he had to spend much time delivering sermons and running a parish instead of writing.
Saint Augustine is known today for his two major works, The Confessions (397–400 CE,) and The City of God (426 CE,) the latter written after the fall of Rome to the Barbarians in 410 CE. In The Confessions, one of the first memoirs of Western literature, Augustine scrutinized his earlier life—the sins he had committed—crying over a fictional character in a poem, stealing pears from a neighbor’s tree, sexual fantasies and exploits, long relationship with a concubine, and so forth. His meditations on his emotional development and the growth of his soul in the context of his own pagan experience are often seen as an argument for Roman Catholicism.
Saint Augustine is also remembered for his philosophies about the notion of original sin—he asserted that all humans are born sinful because they are descended from Adam and Eve, who committed the first sin.
Soon after his death of Augustine, the City of Hippo was destroyed by Vandals. Augustine’s library survived, and all his ideas about resisting pagan influences became church doctrine. His urging that all Christian churches follow the central church in Rome was responsible for preventing the Christian faith from breaking up into separate churches during the medieval period.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Augustine of Hippo
Blessedness consists in the accomplishment of our desires, and in our having only regular desires.
—Augustine of Hippo
Topics: Happiness
By and by never comes.
—Augustine of Hippo
Topics: The Future, Tomorrow
Purity of soul cannot be lost without consent.
—Augustine of Hippo
Topics: Truth
Be displeased with what thou art, if thou desirest to attain to what thou art not; for where thou hast pleased thyself, there thou abidest, and if thou sayest I have enough, thou perishest.
—Augustine of Hippo
People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering.
—Augustine of Hippo
Topics: Self-Discovery, People, Reflection
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.
—Augustine of Hippo
Topics: Change, Growth
In doing what we ought we deserve no praise, because it is our duty.
—Augustine of Hippo
Topics: Duty, Praise, Proverbs
In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?
—Augustine of Hippo
Topics: Absence, Government
To wisdom belongs the intellectual apprehension of things eternal; to knowledge, the rational apprehension of things temporal.
—Augustine of Hippo
Topics: Knowledge, Wisdom
Indeed, man wishes to be happy even when he so lives as to make happiness impossible.
—Augustine of Hippo
Topics: Happiness
Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.
—Augustine of Hippo
Topics: Miracles
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