No work of Augustine’s contains this line. Wikiquote ↗ lists it under Misattributed and gives its earliest known appearance as Ahmad Sohrab’s Persian Rosary (c. 1929). Wikiquote says it is probably a paraphrase of Lord Illingworth’s epigram in Wilde’s A Woman of No Importance, first staged in 1893: “every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.”
“The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.” Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance (first staged 1893), Third Act. The popular "no saint without a past, no sinner without a future" version is not by Augustine.
⚠ The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Augustine of Hippo. Use the credit shown above instead.
Can you use it?
? We couldn’t establish where this was first published, so there’s no rights status to give. Credit it as shown above — just don’t present it as public domain, and get permission for commercial or published reuse.
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In context
Evoking the world of Oscar Wilde — Irish playwright, poet & wit. Theme: "There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Minimalist
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Provenance
Where the idea actually comes from
Work
A Woman of No Importance
Speaker
Lord Illingworth, Third Act
First staged
Haymarket Theatre, London, 19 April 1893 (first printed 1894)
Popular wording
Earliest known: Ahmad Sohrab, A Persian Rosary (c. 1929, per Wikiquote)
LADY HUNSTANTON. … I have a dim idea, dear Lord Illingworth, that you are always on the side of the sinners, and I know I always try to be on the side of the saints, but that is as far as I get. And after all, it may be merely the fancy of a drowning person.
LORD ILLINGWORTH. The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.
Wilde’s original
Wilde wrote a cynical joke: a saint is someone whose sins are behind them. The popular version turns it into a statement of hope. Its two-clause “no saint without a past / no sinner without a future” form first appears, as far as is known, in item 5 of Ahmad Sohrab’s typescript A Persian Rosary: “There is no saint without a past. There is no sinner without a future.”
Wikiquote, Augustine of Hippo ↗ lists the line under Misattributed. It gives Ahmad Sohrab’s Persian Rosary (c. 1929) as the earliest known occurrence, probably paraphrasing Wilde’s 1893 play.
Wilde’s epigram, spoken by Lord Illingworth in the Third Act of A Woman of No Importance, is in the Project Gutenberg text ↗. Its front matter records the Haymarket premiere of 19 April 1893 and a first printing in 1894.
An archived scan of Sohrab’s undated typescript, “A Persian Rosary” ↗, has as item 5: “There is no saint without a past. There is no sinner without a future.”
Pope Francis used the line in his Santa Marta homily of 19 January 2016. The Vatican’s summary of the homily ↗ quotes him: “there are no saints without a past, nor sinners without a future.” He credits no one.
The popular wording goes back only to Ahmad Sohrab’s Persian Rosary. Wikiquote dates it c. 1929, but the surviving typescript scan carries no date, and WIST notes that the edition dates are unclear, so we assert no copyright status for that wording. Wilde’s original sentence, from a play first printed in 1894, is in the US public domain.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
Why Augustine gets the credit
The line suits Augustine’s story of a sinful youth followed by conversion, which is probably why it attached to him. But no one has found it in any of his writings, and the specialists file it as misattributed.
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Popular attribution on quote sites and social mediaAugustine of Hippo Misattributed
Wikiquote ↗ says the line is “sometimes attributed to Augustine”. It places it in its Misattributed section, with Sohrab’s Persian Rosary (c. 1929) as the earliest known occurrence.
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Earliest known source of this exact two-clause formAhmad Sohrab Earliest known
Sohrab (1890–1958) was a Persian-American Bahá’í writer, and the line appears in his maxim list “A Persian Rosary” ↗. WIST ↗ credits the wording to him and says it found no evidence he borrowed it from Wilde. Wikiquote calls it probably a Wilde paraphrase. The sources disagree on that point.
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Later popularizer, 2016Pope Francis Later use
He used the line in his 19 January 2016 homily ↗ as his own reflection on King David, with no attribution. He did not originate it.
✓The idea goes back at least to Oscar Wilde’s A Woman of No Importance (first staged 1893). There Lord Illingworth says “every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future” (Project Gutenberg ↗). The “no saint without a past” form is a later rewording, earliest known from Ahmad Sohrab’s Persian Rosary.
Context
From a drawing-room joke to a sermon line
In Wilde’s play the line is a jab from a worldly aristocrat. Lord Illingworth uses it to tease Lady Hunstanton, who has just admitted she always tries to be “on the side of the saints.” The point is cynical: saints are simply sinners whose sins are behind them.
Recast as “There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future,” the same reversal becomes a message of hope and redemption. In that form it travels easily in religious settings, attaches to Augustine, the best-known reformed sinner among the saints, and was used by Pope Francis in a 2016 homily.
Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.
Explore
Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
Oscar Wilde was the Dublin-born playwright of Lady Windermere’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance and The Importance of Being Earnest, and was famous for epigrams that turn moral commonplaces upside down. In A Woman of No Importance, which opened at the Haymarket Theatre in London on 19 April 1893, the cynical Lord Illingworth says that “every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.” The “no saint without a past” line now credited to Augustine is most likely a later rewording of that joke.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Original idea
Wilde, Oscar. A Woman of No Importance. 8th ed. London: Methuen & Co., 1919 (first printed 1894; first staged 1893), Third Act. Project Gutenberg eBook #854. The “no saint without a past” wording is earliest known from Ahmad Sohrab, A Persian Rosary (c. 1929, per Wikiquote).
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future’?” Last verified 2 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/there-is-no-saint-without-a-past-no-sinner-without-a-future/