The angels surround and help the priest when he is celebrating Mass.
When [men] go to war, what they want is to impose on their enemies the victor's will and call it peace.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Saint Augustine critiques the hypocrisy in the concept of peace achieved through war, highlighting the desire for domination rather than true tranquility.
In this quote, Saint Augustine explores the paradox of war and peace, suggesting that what often passes for peace is merely a result of one group imposing its will over another. This perspective critiques the glorification of war, emphasizing that genuine peace cannot be achieved through force or domination, but rather through understanding and respect among nations.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the consequences of conflict, one might say, 'As Saint Augustine observed, when men go to war, they often impose their will rather than seeking true peace.'
More from Saint Augustine
All quotes βThere is no health in those who are displeased by an element in Your creation, just as there was none in me when I was displeased by many things You had made. Because my soul didn't dare to say that my God displeased me, it refused to attribute to You whatever was displeasing.
Bad times, hard times, this is what people keep saying; but let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times: Such as we are, such are the times.
Who can map out the various forces at play in one soul? Man is a great depth, O Lord. The hairs of his head are easier by far to count than his feeling, the movements of his heart.
Whatever skills I have acquired, whatever gifts I have been given, I place them at Your service.
Everyone who observes himself doubting observes a truth, and about that which he observes he is certain; therefore he is certain about a truth. Everyone therefore who doubts whether truth exists has in himself a truth on which not to doubt.... Hence one who can doubt at all ought not to doubt the existence of truth.
Similar quotes
Compared with that of Taoists and Far Eastern Buddhists, the Christian attitude toward Nature has been curiously insensitive and often downright domineering and violent. Taking their cue from an unfortunate remark in Genesis, Catholic moralists have regarded animals as mere things which men do right to regard for their own ends. . . .
Races didn't bother the Americans. They were something a lot better than any race. They were a People. They were the first self-constituted, self-declared, self-created People in the history of the world.
When morals are sufficient, law is unnecessary; when morals are insufficient, law is unenforceable.
I like these people swarming on the sidewalks, wedged into a little space of houses and canals, hemmed in by fogs, cold lands, and the sea streaming like a wet wash. I like them, for they are double. They are here and elsewhere.
One can acquire everything in solitude except character.
"But when you hear men talking," said Cornelia, "all they ever do is speak ill of women. 'And I don't quite know how they've managed to make this law in their favor, or who exactly it was who gave them a greater license to sin than is allowed to us; and if the fault is common to both sexes (as they can hardly deny), why should the blame not be as well?