QuoteProject
This awful catastrophe is not the end but the beginning. History does not end so. It is the way its chapters open.
Saint Augustine
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote emphasizes that even in the face of severe challenges, there is always an opportunity for new beginnings and growth.

Saint Augustine's quote suggests that every major setback or disaster, while devastating, should not be viewed as a definitive end. Instead, it is a pivotal moment from which new beginnings can emerge, highlighting the cyclical nature of history where each chapter leads to the next in a continuous narrative of change and renewal.

Themes

CatastropheBeginningHistoryChangeGrowth

In practice

Example use cases

During a speech on resilience, someone might quote this to inspire others to see challenges as opportunities.

More from Saint Augustine

The angels surround and help the priest when he is celebrating Mass.
Saint AugustineRead
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

All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.
VoltaireRead
Depression is so treacherous - it can be so alluring as well as punishing. After all, it's yours and yours alone - no one else can interfere with it.
Margo JeffersonRead
Sometimes there is a difference in what is legal and what ought to be done.
William J. ClintonRead
Once we ask why it should be that all human beings - including infants, the intellectually disabled, criminal psychopaths, Hitler, Stalin, and the rest - have some kind of dignity or worth that no elephant, pig, or chimpanzee can ever achieve, we see that this question is as difficult to answer as our original request for some relevant fact that justifies the inequality of humans and other animals.
Peter SingerRead
Do not imagine that what we have said of the insufficiency of our understanding and of its limited extent is an assertion founded only on the Bible: for philosophers likewise assert the same, and perfectly understand it,- without having regard to any religion or opinion.
MaimonidesRead
From the point of view of the meditative traditions the entire society is suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Jon Kabat-ZinnRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Saint Augustine | QuoteProject