You wish to be great, begin from the least. You are thinking to construct some mighty fabric in height; first think of the foundation of humility. And how great soever a mass of building one may wish and design to place above it, the greater the building is to be, the deeper does he dig his foundation.

Magnus esse vis, a minimo incipe. Cogitas magnam fabricam construere celsitudinis, de fundamento prius cogita humilitatis. Et quantam quisque vult et disponit superimponere molem aedificii, quanto erit maius aedificium, tanto altius fodit fundamentum.

Original text (Latin)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Sermon 19:2 on the New Testament

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Augustine of Hippo (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.