Augustine of Hippo Quotes on Love
Augustine of Hippo was a Roman-African theologian and philosopher whose work shaped Western Christianity and Latin philosophy for the next millennium. This page collects quotes attributed to Augustine of Hippo on the topic of love, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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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)