Augustine of Hippo on Valentine's Day
354–430
← All quotes by Augustine of Hippo
17 quotes
Inasmuch as love grows in you, in so much beauty grows; for love is itself the beauty of the soul.
Choose to love whomsoever thou wilt: all else will follow.
It is love that asks, that seeks, that knocks, that finds, and that is faithful to what it finds.
The mind itself, its love [of itself] and its knowledge [of itself] are a kind of trinity.
For God loves to save and not to condemn; therefore is he patient with evil, that out of evil good may be brought.
We cannot help loving what is beautiful.
What is love's perfection? To love our enemies, and to love them to the end that they may be our brothers.
Beauty grows in you to the extent that love grows, because charity itself is the soul's beauty.
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.
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.
I was not yet in love, yet I loved to love...I sought what I might love, in love with loving.
Confessions (397)
The dove loves even when it attacks; the wolf hates even when it flatters.
Venerate the martyrs, praise, love, proclaim, honor them. But worship the God of the martyrs.
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 (397)
Slow was I, Lord, too slow in loving you. ... You were waiting within me while I went outside me, looking for you there, misshaping myself as I flung myself upon the shapely things you made.
To my God a heart of flame; To my fellow man a heart of love; To myself a heart of steel.
Disputed
What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.
Disputed