Q0046

Augustine of Hippo

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

What then is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I wish to explain it to one who asks, I do not know.
Thinker Augustine of Hippo
School Patristic Philosophy
Source Confessions XI.14
Theme Time
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Confessions XI.14, within the tradition of Patristic Philosophy. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of time, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Augustine of Hippo's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Augustine of Hippo. (n.d.). What then is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I wish to explain it to one who asks, I do not know. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0046

MLA: Augustine of Hippo. “What then is time? If no one asks….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0046.

Chicago: Augustine of Hippo. “What then is time? If no one asks….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0046.

Same thinker

More from Augustine of Hippo

  1. You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.
  2. Late have I loved you, beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you!
  3. Give what you command, and command what you will.
  4. Take up and read; take up and read.
  5. Do not go outside; return into yourself. Truth dwells in the inner man.

All quotations by Augustine of Hippo

Same theme

More on time

  1. Upon those who step into the same rivers, different and different waters flow.
  2. All else belongs to others; time alone is ours.
  3. Claim yourself for yourself.
  4. The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk.
  5. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Browse the time theme