Augustine of Hippo 354 – 430
Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430) was a Roman philosopher of the Medieval era, associated with Medieval Philosophy, Christian Philosophy, and Platonism.
Augustine of Hippo was a Roman-African theologian and philosopher whose work shaped Western Christianity and Latin philosophy for the next millennium. His Confessions, addressed to God in autobiographical form, inaugurated a major literary genre and remains a foundational text on memory, time, and the structure of the self. The City of God presented an account of Christian providence in human history, written in response to the sack of Rome in 410. He synthesized Neoplatonic philosophy with Christian doctrine, producing influential treatments of free will, grace, original sin, and the just war. Augustine served as Bishop of Hippo Regius in Roman North Africa from 396 until his death in 430.
Augustine of Hippo (354–430) is the most important Christian philosopher of late antiquity and the figure through whom Platonist philosophy entered the Latin Christian tradition decisively. Born in Roman North Africa, he taught rhetoric in Carthage, Rome, and Milan, and converted to Christianity in 386 under the influence of Ambrose of Milan and his reading of Neoplatonist philosophy. He returned to Africa, was ordained, and became Bishop of Hippo Regius in 396.
Augustine's surviving body of work is enormous — sermons, letters, biblical commentaries, polemical treatises — but three works are central to his philosophical legacy. The Confessions (c. 400) is the founding work of Western autobiography and an extended philosophical meditation on time, memory, and the self in relation to God. The City of God (begun 413) is a comprehensive philosophical-historical work distinguishing the heavenly and earthly cities, written against the pagan charge that Christianity had caused the sack of Rome. On Christian Doctrine, On the Trinity, and On Free Choice of the Will round out the philosophical core.
Augustine's account of original sin, fallen reason, divine grace, and the privation theory of evil shaped subsequent Western theology and philosophy. His Platonist framework — the soul ascending toward eternal truth — was the dominant Christian philosophical inheritance through the early Middle Ages, until Aquinas integrated Aristotelian alternatives. He died at Hippo in 430 as the Vandals were besieging the city.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Roman
- Era
- Medieval
- Movements
- Medieval Philosophy, Christian Philosophy, Platonism
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Augustine of Hippo:
“Our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
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“Love, and do what you will.”
Once for all, then, a short precept is given thee: Love , and do what thou wilt: whether thou hold thy peace , through love hold thy peace; whether thou cry out, through love cry out; whether thou correct, through love correct; whether thou spare, through love do thou spare: let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good . -
Attributed to Augustine of Hippo:
“Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.”
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“What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks me, I do not know.”
Quid est ergo tempus? Si nemo ex me quaerat, scio; si quaerenti explicare velim, nescio. -
“Lord, give me chastity and continence, but not yet.”
At ego adulescens miser ualde, miser in exordio ipsius adulescentiae, etiam petieram a te castitatem et dixeram, 'Da mihi castitatem et continentiam, sed noli modo.
Augustine of Hippo by topic
Augustine of Hippo vs other philosophers
Three-way comparisons including Augustine of Hippo
Frequently asked about Augustine of Hippo
- When did Augustine of Hippo live?
- Augustine of Hippo was born in 354 and died in 430.
- Where was Augustine of Hippo from?
- Augustine of Hippo was a Roman philosopher of the Medieval era.
- What philosophical movements is Augustine of Hippo associated with?
- Augustine of Hippo was associated with Medieval Philosophy, Christian Philosophy, and Platonism.
- What was Augustine of Hippo known for?
- Augustine of Hippo was a Roman-African theologian and philosopher whose work shaped Western Christianity and Latin philosophy for the next millennium.
- How many quotes are attributed to Augustine of Hippo?
- There are 48 attributed quotations from Augustine of Hippo in the 1001Philosophers collection, organized by topic.
Quotes that are not actually from Augustine of Hippo
These lines are widely circulated as Augustine of Hippo, but they do not appear in Augustine of Hippo's works. Each entry below identifies the actual source.
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“Pray as if everything depended on God; work as if everything depended on you.”
This maxim is variously credited to Augustine, Ignatius of Loyola, and several other figures, but it does not appear in Augustine's surviving works. The form most commonly quoted today is associated with later Catholic devotional literature and circulated widely from the 19th century onward. Its earliest precise wording cannot be reliably traced to any single classical or medieval source.
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“In necessariis unitas, In dubiis libertas, In omnibus autem caritas.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: In necessary things, unity ; in doubtful things, liberty ; in all things, charity ( love ). The first known occurrence of such an expression is as " Omnesque mutuam amplecteremur unitatem in necessariis, in non necessariis libertatem, in omnibus caritatem " in De Republica Ecclesiastica by Marco Ant
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“Inter faeces et urinas nascimur.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: We are born between feces and urine. Attributed to a church father in Freud's Dora ; Freud seems to have found it in an anatomy textbook by Josef Hyrtl (1867), where it was attributed to a church father; it may have been invented by Hyrtl. [ ] For Hyrtl's quotation see [ ]. An early similar phrase a
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“The world is a great book, of which they that never stir from home read only a page.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Attributed to Augustine in "Select Proverbs of All Nations" (1824) by "Thomas Fielding" (John Wade), p. 216 , and later in the form "The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page", as quoted in 20,000 Quips & Quotes (1995) by Evan Esar, p. 822; this has not been located in August
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“There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: This is sometimes attributed to Augustine, but the earliest known occurrence is in Persian Rosary (c. 1929) by Ahmad Sohrab (PDF) , which probably originates as a paraphrase of a statement in Oscar Wilde 's 1893 play A Woman of No Importance : "The only difference between the saint and the sinner is
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“Our bodies are shaped to bear children, and our lives are a working out of the processes of creation. All our ambitions and intelligence are beside that great elemental point.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Sometimes attributed to Augustine, but is from Phyllis McGinley , The Province of the Heart , "The Honor of Being a Woman" (1959).
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“The truth is like a lion. You don’t have to defend it. Let it loose and it will defend itself.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Not found in Augustine's works, it is stated in Fauxtations: Because sometimes the Internet is wrong : St. Augustine: The Truth is Like a Lion (18 October 2015) , that this is very likely a summary derived from statements of Charles Haddon Spurgeon about the "Word of God" or "the pure gospel", and t
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“There is no greater freedom than the freedom to obey.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Paraphrase of various teachings, primarily from 'Confessions'.
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“All truth is God's truth.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Paraphrase of "Wherever one discovers truth, it is the Lord's" from Augustine's On Christian Teaching , Book 2.
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“Quando hic sum, non iuieno Sabbato; quando Romae sum, iuieno Sabbato.”
When I am here, I do not fast on Saturday; when at Rome, I do fast on Saturday. Here, in Letter 36 "To Casulanus" (396 A.D.) , Augustine is quoting Ambrose . Origin of the phrase: "When in Rome, do as the Romans do."
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“When I am here, I do not fast on Saturday; when at Rome, I do fast on Saturday.”
Here, in Letter 36 "To Casulanus" (396 A.D.) , Augustine is quoting Ambrose . Origin of the phrase: "When in Rome, do as the Romans do."
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“In necessary things, unity ; in doubtful things, liberty ; in all things, charity ( love ).”
The first known occurrence of such an expression is as " Omnesque mutuam amplecteremur unitatem in necessariis, in non necessariis libertatem, in omnibus caritatem " in De Republica Ecclesiastica by Marco Antonio de Dominis , Pars I. London (1617), lib. 4 cap. 8 p. 676 (penultimate sentence) books.google , cf. liberlocorumcommunium .
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“We are born between feces and urine.”
Attributed to a church father in Freud's Dora ; Freud seems to have found it in an anatomy textbook by Josef Hyrtl (1867), where it was attributed to a church father; it may have been invented by Hyrtl. [ [30] ] For Hyrtl's quotation see [ [31] ]. An early similar phrase appears in a work by the 16th century philosopher Mark Antony Zimara: Quippe si se inter stercus & urinam conceptum fuisse reminisceretur [...] non utique superbiret. ("Since, if [man] remembered that he was conceived between dung and urine, [...] he obviously would not feel pride.") (Source: Problemata Aristotelis ac philosophorum medicorumque complurium, Lyon 1557, p. 154 )
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“I know, but it is no longer I.”
Supposedly spoken by Augustine to his former concubine when she greeted him in the street, and when he ignored her said "Augustine, it is I!" Actually the quote ( Sed ego non sum ego ) is from De Poenitentia , Book II , Chapter 10 by Ambrose. Ambrose relates it as a fable, not concerning Augustine, as explained here .
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“Humilitas homines sanctis angelis similes facit, et superbia ex angelis demones facit.”
It was pride that changed angels into devils ; it is humility that makes men as angels. As quoted in Manipulus Florum ( c. 1306), edited by Thomas Hibernicus , Superbia i cum uariis; also in Best Thoughts Of Best Thinkers: Amplified, Classified, Exemplified and Arranged as a Key to unlock the Literature of All Ages (1904) edited by Hialmer Day Gould and Edward Louis Hessenmueller (Disputed.)
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“It was pride that changed angels into devils ; it is humility that makes men as angels.”
As quoted in Manipulus Florum ( c. 1306), edited by Thomas Hibernicus , Superbia i cum uariis; also in Best Thoughts Of Best Thinkers: Amplified, Classified, Exemplified and Arranged as a Key to unlock the Literature of All Ages (1904) edited by Hialmer Day Gould and Edward Louis Hessenmueller (Disputed.)
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“My mother spoke of Christ to my father, by her feminine and childlike virtues, and, after having borne his violence without a murmur or complaint, gained him at the close of his life to Christ.”
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 351 (Disputed.)
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“Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.”
As quoted in Majority of One (1957) by Sydney J. Harris, p. 283 (Disputed.)
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“Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage ; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.”
As quoted in Spirituality and Liberation: Overcoming the Great Fallacy (1988) by Robert McAfee Brown, p. 136 (Disputed.)
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“To wisdom belongs the intellectual apprehension of things eternal; to knowledge , the rational apprehension of things temporal.”
As quoted in The Anchor Book of Latin Quotations: with English translations (1990) by Norbert Guterman, p. 375 (Disputed.)
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“By faithfulness we are collected and wound up into unity within ourselves, whereas we had been scattered abroad in multiplicity.”
As quoted in Footprints in Time : Fulfilling God's Destiny for Your Life (2007) by Jeff O'Leary, p. 223 (Disputed.)
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“Do not despair: one thief was saved. Do not presume: one thief was damned.”
Attributed to St. Augustine in The Repentance of Robert Greene, Master of Arts (1592) by Robert Greene . (Disputed.)
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“Without God , we cannot. Without us, God will not.”
As quoted in If God Be For Us : Sermons on the Gifts of the Gospel (1954), by Robert Edward Luccock, p. 38; this may be a variant translation or paraphrase of an expression in his 169th sermon: "He who created you without you will not justify you without you." (Disputed.)
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“If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.”
Earliest attribution found in Who Said That?: More than 2,500 Usable Quotes and Illustrations (1995) by George Sweeting. Online sources always attribute the quote to Augustine, but never specify in which of his works it is to be found. (Disputed.)
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“To my God a heart of flame; To my fellow man a heart of love; To myself a heart of steel.”
Attributed to Augustine by many sources on line, but without an actual reference. (Disputed.)