QuoteProject
Let us understand that God is a physician, and that suffering is a medicine for salvation, not a punishment for damnation.
Saint Augustine
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote reflects the belief that suffering is a necessary part of spiritual growth and healing, rather than a mere punishment.

Saint Augustine expresses a profound philosophical perspective on the nature of suffering and its role in human salvation. He suggests that like a physician who administers medicine for healing, God uses suffering as a means to purify and save us, positioning it not as a retribution for wrongdoing but as a transformative aspect of the human experience that leads to spiritual enlightenment and redemption.

Themes

SufferingSalvationMedicineSpiritualityHealing

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about personal growth at a community gathering.

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

For truth is always strange; stranger than fiction.
Lord ByronRead
To wonder about life is not something we learn; it is something we forget.
Jostein GaarderRead
A kingdom man is a man who visibly demonstrates the comprehensive rule of God underneath the Lordship of Jesus Christ in every area of his life.
Tony EvansRead
Our particular principles of religion are a subject of accountability to God alone.
Thomas JeffersonRead
If the laborer gets no more than the wages which his employer pays him, he is cheated, he cheats himself.
Henry David ThoreauRead
It is only the superficial qualities that last. Man's deeper nature is soon found out.
Oscar WildeRead

A little wisdom, now and then

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