Nature & Animals Quote by Saint Augustine

A neat bit of pastoral realism hides inside Augustine's image: the human will is strong, necessary, and directionless without a higher intelligence to govern it. By pairing "will" with a horse, he grants it genuine power. Horses move. They have muscle, momentum, even a kind of stubborn personality. Augustine isn't preaching passivity; he's warning against self-trust that mistakes energy for guidance. A riderless horse can sprint, bolt, or throw you. That's the subtext: willpower, by itself, is not virtue. It's just force.

"Grace" as the rider does more than steer. It sits above, not beside. In Augustine's theology, grace is not an accessory added to an already competent moral agent; it is the command center that makes moral motion meaningful. The metaphor also smuggles in hierarchy without sounding like a lecture: the rider doesn't negotiate with the horse about where to go. In the long argument Augustine wages against Pelagianism (the idea that humans can choose the good unaided), this is a compact rebuttal. You can have the best animal in the stable and still end up in a ditch if no one is holding the reins.

The line works because it flatters and chastens at once. Your will matters; it has real horsepower. But the destination, and the ability to keep to it, comes from elsewhere. In Augustine's world, that "elsewhere" is divine initiative, not self-improvement.