The angels surround and help the priest when he is celebrating Mass.
Saint AugustineRead
What is reprehensible is that while leading good lives themselves and abhorring those of wicked men, some, fearing to offend, shut their eyes to evil deeds instead of condemning them and pointing out their malice.
Interpretation
What this quote means
It criticizes those who ignore evil actions due to fear of conflict.
Saint Augustine's quote emphasizes the moral responsibility of individuals to confront and condemn wickedness, even if such actions result in discomfort or conflict. It highlights a troubling tendency for some people to remain silent about wrongdoing due to the desire to maintain peace or to avoid offending others, suggesting that true virtue requires courage to address and expose malice in society.
Themes
MoralityEvilCourageCondemnationResponsibility
In practice
Example use cases
During a community meeting discussing a local issue, one could quote Augustine to encourage individuals to speak against systemic injustices.
More from Saint Augustine
All quotes →There 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.
Saint AugustineRead
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.
Saint AugustineRead
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.
Saint AugustineRead
Whatever skills I have acquired, whatever gifts I have been given, I place them at Your service.
Saint AugustineRead
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.
Saint AugustineRead
Similar quotes
We combat obstacles in order to get repose, and when got, the repose is insupportable.
Henry AdamsRead
Truth always rests with the minority, and the minority is always stronger than the majority, because the minority is generally formed by those who really have an opinion, while the strength of a majority is illusory, formed by the gangs who have no opinion - and who, therefore, in the next instant (when it is evident that the minority is the stronger) assume its opinion ... while Truth again reverts to a new minority.
Soren KierkegaardRead
I lay there silently, hoarding my small dignity. I did not ask about the gate or the closet. I did not question the bedtime ritual where, on the cold bathroom tiles, I was spread out daily and examined for flaws. I did not know that my bones, those solids, those pieces of sculpture would not splinter.
Anne SextonRead
We are a society dying, said Aunt Lydia, of too much choice.
Margaret AtwoodRead
A world in which there are monsters, and ghosts, and things that want to steal your heart is a world in which there are angels, and dreams and a world in which there is hope.
Neil GaimanRead
The vulgar man is always the most distinguished, for the very desire to be distinguished is vulgar.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead