Quotes from the Early Church

Christian quotes from the Early Church — with author, dates and source, from two millennia of Christian thought.

You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.
Augustine of Hippo

I would not be able to seek you if you had not already found me.
Augustine of Hippo

For those who love God, he turns everything into good, even their wrong turns and mistakes God lets become good for them.
Augustine of Hippo

God seeks you more than your offering.
Augustine of Hippo

God has his ear at your heart.
Augustine of Hippo

There are two ways to do good: to give and to forgive.
Augustine of Hippo

[The Bible is] shallow enough for a child not to drown, yet deep enough for an elephant to swim.
Augustine of Hippo

God is closer to us than we are to ourselves.
Augustine of Hippo

Great are you, Lord, and highly to be praised. Man, this tiny part of your creation, wants to praise you. You yourself stir him to delight in praising you, for you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.
Augustine of Hippo

Longing desire prayeth always, though the tongue be silent. If thou art ever longing, thou art ever praying.
Augustine of Hippo

You called, You cried, You shattered my deafness, You sparkled, You blazed, You drove away my blindness, You shed Your fragrance, and I drew in my breath, and I pant for You.
Augustine of Hippo

Late have I loved you, beauty so ancient and so new.
Augustine of Hippo

From God's hand I received my life; under God's hand I shape my life; into God's hand I return my life.
Augustine of Hippo

Is someone raging against you? Let him rage, you pray; let him hate, you be merciful! Only the fever in his soul hates you: once healed, he will thank you for it.
Augustine of Hippo

Christ has turned all our sunsets into dawns.
Clement of Alexandria

You, Lord, do not abandon what you have begun. So complete what is unfinished in me.
Augustine of Hippo

All the commandments of God are fulfilled when what is not fulfilled is forgiven.
Augustine of Hippo

You care, Almighty One, for each of us as if he were your only concern, and you watch over all as if they were but one.
Augustine of Hippo

Cast yourself upon him! And do not be afraid, he will not draw back and let you fall! No, cast yourself upon him without fear; he will catch you and heal you.
Augustine of Hippo

Lord, if you do not find me as one who conquers, then find me as one who struggles.
Augustine of Hippo

I sought you, O God, outside, and not within, where you were waiting for me.
Augustine of Hippo

God had one Son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.
Augustine of Hippo

He was created by a mother whom He created. He was carried by hands that He formed. He cried in the manger in wordless infancy, He the Word, without whom all human eloquence is mute.
Augustine of Hippo

God does not choose a person because they are worthy; rather, by the very act of choosing, He makes them worthy.
Augustine of Hippo

Fear is the response of the human heart when its one thing is threatened.
Augustine of Hippo

I have read Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, but none of them said: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Augustine of Hippo

When man uncovers his sins, God covers them. When man hides them, God uncovers them. When man acknowledges them, God forgets them.
Augustine of Hippo

God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.
Augustine of Hippo

You who love me, do not look at the life I am ending, but at the life I am beginning.
Augustine of Hippo

Love - and do what you will.
Augustine of Hippo

Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.
Augustine of Hippo

If you believe what you like in the gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.
Augustine of Hippo

People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas, at the long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and yet they pass by themselves without wondering.
Augustine of Hippo

The Holy Scriptures are our letters from home.
Augustine of Hippo

Scripture is like a river, so shallow that a lamb can wade in it, and so deep that an elephant can swim in it.
Gregory the Great

Better to limp on the right path than to walk with firm steps off it.
Augustine of Hippo

Do what you can, and pray for what you cannot, and God will grant that you can.
Augustine of Hippo

Hate the error, but love the one who errs.
Augustine of Hippo

You wanted to be God though you were human, and so you were lost. He wanted to be human though he was God. Your human pride struck you down so hard that only the humility of a God could raise you up again.
Augustine of Hippo

Lord, give me the strength to do all that you require of me. Then require of me what you will.
Augustine of Hippo

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Augustine of Hippo, Clement of Alexandria, Gregory the Great

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Quotes from the Early Church

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