1580: Augustine of Hippo, a Restless Heart’s Ordered Love

What are Augustine of Hippo’s most definitive quotes, and what do they reveal about his theology of love, time, and grace?

397: “You move us to delight in praising You; for You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

397: “Whoever, then, thinks that he understands the divine Scriptures, or any part of them, so that it does not build up the double love of God and of our neighbor, does not understand them at all.”

398: “Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet.”

400: “Late have I loved You, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new; late have I loved You! For behold, You were within, and I was without… You called and cried aloud and forced open my deafness; You gleamed and shone and chased away my blindness.”

400: “Give what You command, and command what You will.”

400: “He loves You too little who loves anything together with You, which he loves not for Your sake.”

400: “What, then, is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I wish to explain to him who asks, I know not.”

407: “A short precept is given you: Love, and do what you will… let the root of love be within; of this root can nothing spring but what is good.”

c. 410: “Believe, that you may understand.”

c. 415: “For if I am deceived, I am.”

421: “For evil has no positive nature; but the loss of good has received the name ‘evil’.”

426: “Two loves have made two cities: the love of self, even to the contempt of God; and the love of God, even to the contempt of self.”

426: “It seems to me that a brief and true definition of virtue is the order of love.”

426: “Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.”

420: “The New Testament lies hidden in the Old, and the Old is made manifest in the New.”

Scott Douglas Jacobsen is the publisher of In-Sight Publishing (ISBN: 978–1–0692343) and Editor-in-Chief of *In-Sight: Interviews* (ISSN: 2369–6885). He writes for The Good Men Project, International Policy Digest (ISSN: 2332–9416), The Humanist (Print: ISSN 0018–7399; Online: ISSN 2163–3576), Basic Income Earth Network (UK Registered Charity 1177066), A Further Inquiry, and other media. He is a member in good standing of numerous media organizations.

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