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God is not the Author of evil. He never repented of anything he had made. His mind is disturbed by no emotional storms. No particular part of the earth is his Kingdom. xviii, 36

True religion cannot by any means be approached without the weighty command of authority. Things must first be believed of which a man may later achieve understanding if he conduct himself well and prove himself worthy. ix, 21

All that is in these scriptures, believe me, is profound and divine. All truth is there, and learning suited to refresh and restore souls, but in such a form that there is no one who may not draw thence all he needs, provided he comes to draw and in a spirit of piety and devotion such as true religion demands. vi, 13

Consequently, we must firmly believe that by God's generosity, mediated by Christ's merit, through the sanctification of the Spirit, sins have been and are daily pardoned to us who have been received and engrafted into the body of the church. 4.1.21

You know that they endeavor to include Manes, their founder, among the apostles, and say that the Holy Spirit whom the Lord promised to send to his disciples, came to us through Manes. iii, 7

I fell among these people (Manichees) for no other reason than that they declared that they would put aside all overawing authority, and by pure and simple reason would bring to God those who are willing to listen to them, and so deliver them from all error. i, 2

We worship one God from whom, through whom and in whom we have our being, from whom we fell away, being made unlike him, by whom we have not been allowed to perish. liv, 113

Just men who have all their joy in God Alone congratulate those who praise Him for their good deeds. But when they are praised themselves, where possible they correct the erring. liv, 111

But he who makes a good use even of his five bodily senses, to believe and praise the works of God, to cultivate love of God, to seek tranquillity of thought and action, and to know God, he enters into the joy of his Lord. liv, 106

We are called to perfect human nature as God made it before we sinned. We are recalled from love of what we have deserved by sinning. Therefore we must hate that from which we choose to be set free. xlvi, 88

Let us turn to God so that we may deserve to be illumined by his Word, the true light, and that darkness may not take possession of us. xlii, 79

Men could be masters of this world if they were willing to be the sons of God, for God has given them the power to become his sons. But the unhappy friends of this world so fear to be separated from its embrace that nothing is more toilsome to them than to be at rest. xxxv, 65

Such a man as we have been speaking of wants to turn his mind to corporeal things and his eyes to God. He seeks to know carnal things and to see spiritual things. But that is impossible. xxxiii, 62

In the case of temporal laws, men have instituted them and judge by them, and when they have been instituted and confirmed no judge may judge them but must judge according to them. xxxi, 58

Their history is called the Old Testament having the promise of a kind of earthly kingdom, which is nothing but the image of the new people and the New Testament, with the promises of the kingdom of heaven. xxvii, 50

For what right-minded man will contend that books so religiously preserved during thousands of years, and transmitted by so orderly a succession, were written without an object, or that only the bare historical facts are to be considered when we read them?

Their moments of faithfulness in office provided previews of Jesus' ministries as the final Prophet, perfect Priest, and King of Kings; and their failures kept believers hearts looking forward in hope to his eventual arrival.

And this might very readily be conjectured from the fact that from one man, Abraham, in not much more than four hundred years, the numbers of the Hebrew race so increased, that in the exodus of that people from Egypt there are recorded to have been six hundred thousand men capable of bearing arms.

Who then can doubt that during the lifetime of one man the human race might be so multiplied that there would be a population to build and occupy not one but several cities?

In no way did God show greater loving-kindness in his dealings with the human race for its good than when the Wisdom of God, his only Son, co-eternal and consubstantial with the Father, deigned to assume human nature; when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. XVI,30

Life which delights in material joys and neglects God tends to nothingness and is thereby iniquity. XI.22

After all the Christian blood shed, after all the burnings and crucifixions of the martyrs, fertilized by these things churches have sprung up as far afield as among barbarian nations. III.5

However philosophers may boast, anyone can easily understand that religion is not to be sought from them.

And these we also mystically call the two cities, or the two communities of men, of which the one is predestined to reign eternally with God, and the other to suffer eternal punishment with the devil.

From one particular region of the earth in which alone the one God was worshipped and where alone such a man could be born, chosen men were sent throughout the entire world, and by their virtues and words have kindled the fires of the divine love.

The way of the good and blessed life is to be found entirely in the true religion wherein one God is worshipped and acknowledged with purest piety to be the beginning of all existing things, originating, perfecting, and containing the universe.

Starting on Book IV now. ☺️

Some have such command of their bowels, that they can break wind continuously at pleasure, so as to produce the effect of singing.

And therefore it is that humility is specially recommended to the city of God as it sojourns in this world, and is specially exhibited in the city of God, and in the person of Christ its King; while the contrary vice of pride, according to the testimony of the sacred writings, specially rules his adversary the devil.

Thanks be to God! No phrase is shorter or happier, more profound or more fruitful than this one.