The angels surround and help the priest when he is celebrating Mass.
Saint AugustineRead
There is another form of temptation, even more fraught with danger. This is the disease of curiosity. It is this which drives us to try and discover the secrets of nature, those secrets which are beyond our understanding, which can avail us nothing and which man should not wish to learn.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Curiosity can lead us to seek knowledge that may be detrimental or beyond our grasp.
Saint Augustine warns that curiosity, while often seen as a virtue, can sometimes become a dangerous temptation. It drives humanity to explore the unknown and uncover the secrets of nature, but some knowledge may be too profound or perilous for us to handle, suggesting that there are limits to what we should pursue in our quest for understanding.
Themes
CuriosityTemptationKnowledgeWisdomUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about scientific ethics, one might quote Augustine to emphasize the importance of knowing our limits.
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
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