Augustine of Hippo Quotes
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 quotes below are attributed to Augustine of Hippo, organized by topic.
Browse Augustine of Hippo by topic
Augustine of Hippo on God
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Attributed to Augustine of Hippo:
“Our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
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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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“Beauty is indeed a good gift of God; but that the good may not think it a great good, God dispenses it even to the wicked.”
XV, 22 -
“De actis cum Felice Manicheo {AD 404), translated as A Debate with Felix the Manichean , ¶1709, in The Faith of the Early Fathers Vol 3 : St. Augustine to the End of the Patristic Age by W.A. Jurgens, p. 88”
Nowhere in the Gospel do we read that the Lord said: "I am sending you a Paraclete who will teach you about the course of the sun and moon ." For He wanted to make Christians , not mathematicians . -
“As the soul is the life of the body, so God is the life of the soul. As therefore the body perishes when the soul leaves it, so the soul dies when God departs from it.”
Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers(1895) | p. 277 -
“When the apostle James was talking about faith and works against those who thought their faith was enough, and didn’t want to have good works, he said, You believe God is one; you do well; the demons also believe, and tremble .” (Jas 2:19)”
Sermons | 183:13:2
Augustine of Hippo on Justice
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Attributed to Augustine of Hippo:
“Hear the other side.”
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“When the Head and members are despised, then the whole Christ is despised, for the whole Christ, Head and body, is that just man against whom deceitful lips speak iniquity (Ps. 30:19).”
On the Mystical Body of Christ | p.425
Augustine of Hippo on Knowledge
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“Augustine, Augustine, quid quaeris? Putasne brevi immettere vasculo mare totum?”
Augustinus, Augustinus, what are you trying to do? Do you believe to be able to pour the whole sea in a little jar? As quoted in the letter of Augustine to saint Cyril of Jerusalem related to the treaty titled On the Trinity -
“Augustinus, Augustinus, what are you trying to do? Do you believe to be able to pour the whole sea in a little jar? As quoted in the letter of Augustine to saint Cyril of Jerusalem related to the treaty titled On the Trinity”
Augustine, Augustine, quid quaeris? Putasne brevi immettere vasculo mare totum? -
“Noli foras ire, in teipsum redi, in interiore homine habitat veritas. Et si tuam naturam mutabilem inveneris, trascende et teipsum .”
Do not go outside yourself, return to yourself: truth dwells in the interiority of man and, if you find that your nature is changeable, transcend yourself too . As quoted in De vera religione , XXXIX, 72 -
“Nowhere in the Gospel do we read that the Lord said: "I am sending you a Paraclete who will teach you about the course of the sun and moon ." For He wanted to make Christians , not mathematicians .”
De actis cum Felice Manicheo {AD 404), translated as A Debate with Felix the Manichean , ¶1709, in The Faith of the Early Fathers Vol 3 : St. Augustine to the End of the Patristic Age by W.A. Jurgens, p. 88 | Variant translations: | One does not read in the Gospel that the Lord said: "I will send you the Paraclete who will teach you about the course of the sun and moon." For He willed to make them -
“The superfluities of the rich are the necessaries of the poor. They who possess superfluities, possess the goods of others.”
Patrologia Latina , vol. 37, p. 1922 -
“Cum dilectione hominum et odio vitiorum.”
Love the sinner and hate the sin . Opera Omnia , Vol II. Col. 962, letter 211 | Alternate translation: With love for mankind and hatred of sins (vices). -
“We were ensnared by the wisdom of the serpent; we are set free by the foolishness of God .”
De doctrina christiana | 1:14 Latin: Serpentis sapientia decepti sumus, Dei stultitia liberamur. -
“The inclination to seek the truth is safer than the presumption which regards unknown things as known.”
On the Trinity(417) | (Cambridge: 2002), Book 9, Chapter 1, p. 24 -
“I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are very wise and very beautiful; but I never read in either of them, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden."”
Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers(1895) | p. 62 -
“Therefore do not seek to understand in order to believe , but believe that thou mayest understand.”
Tractates on the Gospel of John ; tractate XXIX on John 7:14-18, §6 A Select Library of the Nicene And Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church Volume VII by St. Augustine, chapter VII (1888) as translated by Philip Schaff . Compare: Ans -
“If thou shouldst say, 'It is enough, I have reached perfection ,' all is lost. For it is the function of perfection to make one know one's imperfection.”
Quoted by Aldous Huxley , in The Perennial Philosophy (1945)
Augustine of Hippo on Life
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“The Heavenly City outshines Rome, beyond comparison. There, instead of victory, is truth; instead of high rank, holiness; instead of peace, felicity; instead of life, eternity.”
The City of God(early 400s) | Book II, Chapter 29 -
“You can live, provided you live; that is, you can live for ever, provided you live a good life.”
Sermons | 229H:3:2
Augustine of Hippo on Love
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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 . -
“The mind itself, its love [of itself] and its knowledge [of itself] are a kind of trinity.”
On the Trinity(417) | (Cambridge: 2002), Book 9, Chapter 4, Section 4, p. 27 -
“Shut out the evil love of the world, that you may be filled with the love of God. You are a vessel that was already full: you must pour away what you have, that you may take in what you have not.”
Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John(414) | Second Homily, as translated by John Burnaby (1955), p. 274 -
“Beauty grows in you to the extent that love grows, because charity itself is the soul 's beauty.”
Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John(414) | Ninth Homily, Paragraph 9, as translated by Boniface Ramsey (2008) Augustinian Heritage Institute -
“Inasmuch as love grows in you, in so much beauty grows; for love is itself the beauty of the soul.”
Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John(414) | as translated by H. Browne and J. H. Meyers, The Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers (1995) -
“For God loves to save and not to condemn ; therefore is he patient with evil, that out of evil good may be brought.”
Sermons | 18 -
“Venerate the martyrs, praise, love, proclaim, honor them. But worship the God of the martyrs .”
Sermons | 273:9; translation from: The works of Saint Augustine , John E. Rotelle, New City Press, ISBN 1565480600 ISBN 9781565480605 p . 21. [21] -
“Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient and ever new! Late have I loved you! And, behold, you were within me, and I out of myself, and there I searched for you.”
Confessions(c. 397) | X, 27, as translated in Theology and Discovery: Essays in honor of Karl Rahner, S.J. (1980) edited by William J. Kelly -
“What is love's perfection? To love our enemies, and to love them to the end that they may be our brothers.”
Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John(414) | First Homily, as translated by John Burnaby (1955), p. 266 -
“When I, who conduct this inquiry, love something, then three things are found: I, what I love, and the love itself. … There are, therefore three things: the lover, the beloved and the love.”
On the Trinity(417) | (Cambridge: 2002), Book 9, Chapter 2, Section 2, p. 26 -
“I was not yet in love , yet I loved to love...I sought what I might love, in love with loving.”
Confessions(c. 397)
Augustine of Hippo on Nature
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“Do not go outside yourself, return to yourself: truth dwells in the interiority of man and, if you find that your nature is changeable, transcend yourself too . As quoted in De vera religione , XXXIX, 72”
Noli foras ire, in teipsum redi, in interiore homine habitat veritas. Et si tuam naturam mutabilem inveneris, trascende et teipsum . -
“Let each look to his own heart: let him not keep hatred against his brother for any hard word; on account of earthly contention let him not become earth.”
Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John(414) | First Homily, Paragraph 11, as translated by H. Browne, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series , Vol. 7 (1888) -
“"Augustinus, Augustinus, what are you trying to do? Do you believe to be able to pour the whole sea in a little jar?”
As quoted in the letter of Augustine to saint Cyril of Jerusalem related to the treaty titled On the Trinity
Augustine of Hippo on Time
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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. -
“One does not read in the Gospel that the Lord said: "I will send you the Paraclete who will teach you about the course of the sun and moon." For He willed to make them Christians, not mathematicians. As quoted in Science Teaching : The Role of History and Philosophy of Science (1994) by Michael R. Matthews, p. 195”
Nowhere in the Gospel do we read that the Lord said: "I am sending you a Paraclete who will teach you about the course of the sun and moon ." For He wanted to make Christians , not mathematicians . -
“Since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special regard to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstance, are brought into closer connection with you.”
De doctrina christiana | 1:28:29 English Latin Latin: Sed cum omnibus prodesse non possis, his potissimum consulendum est, qui pro locorum et temporum vel quarumlibet rerum opportunitatibus constrictius tibi quasi quadam sort
Augustine of Hippo on Truth
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“The true servants of God are not solicitous that He should order them to do what they desire to do, but that they may desire to do what He orders them to do.”
Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers(1895) | p. 616 -
“Hence, a devout Christian must avoid astrologers and all impious soothsayers, especially when they tell the truth, for fear of leading his soul into error by consorting with demons and entangling himself with the bonds of such association.”
De Genesi ad Litteram | Modern translation by J.H. Taylor in Ancient Christian Writers (1982) -
“Variation on the middle sentence: A thing is not necessarily true because badly uttered, nor false because spoken magnificently.”
Confessions(c. 397) -
“Variation on the middle sentence: A thing is not necessarily false because it is badly expressed, nor true because it is expressed magnificently.”
Confessions(c. 397)
Augustine of Hippo on Virtue
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“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. -
Attributed to Augustine of Hippo:
“There is no possible source of evil except good.”
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“Patience is the companion of wisdom.”
Patientia comes est sapientiae -
“If there is something more excellent than the truth , then that is God ; if not, then truth itself is God.”
De Libero Arbitrio(388 - 395) -
“It is not by change of place that we can come nearer to Him who is in every place, but by the cultivation of pure desires and virtuous habits.”
Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers(1895) | p. 433 -
“Variant translation: The spiritual virtue of a sacrament is like light : although it passes among the impure, it is not polluted.”
As quoted in Familiar Quotations , 9th edition (1892) edited by John Bartlett, p. 169 Comparable to: The sun , too, shines into cesspools and is not polluted. Diogenes Laërtius , Lib. vi. section 63 A very weighty argument is this — namely,
Things actually not said by Augustine of Hippo
A number of widely-shared lines are circulated as Augustine of Hippo but are in fact from someone else. Did Augustine of Hippo say these? No. Each entry below pairs the line with the person who actually wrote it.
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Did Augustine of Hippo say this? No.
“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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Did Augustine of Hippo say this? No.
“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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Did Augustine of Hippo say this? No.
“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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Did Augustine of Hippo say this? No.
“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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Did Augustine of Hippo say this? No.
“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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Did Augustine of Hippo say this? No.
“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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Did Augustine of Hippo say this? No.
“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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Did Augustine of Hippo say this? No.
“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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Did Augustine of Hippo say this? No.
“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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Did Augustine of Hippo say this? No.
“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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Did Augustine of Hippo say this? No.
“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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Did Augustine of Hippo say this? No.
“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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Did Augustine of Hippo say this? No.
“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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Did Augustine of Hippo say this? No.
“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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Did Augustine of Hippo say this? No.
“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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Did Augustine of Hippo say this? No.
“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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Did Augustine of Hippo say this? No.
“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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Did Augustine of Hippo say this? No.
“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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Did Augustine of Hippo say this? No.
“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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Did Augustine of Hippo say this? No.
“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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Did Augustine of Hippo say this? No.
“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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Did Augustine of Hippo say this? No.
“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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Did Augustine of Hippo say this? No.
“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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Did Augustine of Hippo say this? No.
“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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Did Augustine of Hippo say this? No.
“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.)