Q0233

“Do not go outside; return into yourself. Truth dwells in the inner…” — Augustine of Hippo (De vera religione 39.72)

Verified English quotation. Primary source: De vera religione 39.72. Theme: truth.

English

Do not go outside; return into yourself. Truth dwells in the inner man.
Thinker Augustine of Hippo
School Patristic Philosophy
Source De vera religione 39.72
Theme Truth
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to De vera religione 39.72 and files it under Patristic Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

About Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo (354–430) was the North African bishop and theologian who shaped Latin Christianity’s doctrines of grace, sin, and the two cities. A former Manichaean and rhetor, he converted under Ambrose’s influence at Milan and narrated his restless heart in the Confessions.

How to read this passage

Correspondence, coherence, pragmatist, and deflationary theories compete. Ethics and politics ask who gets to define truth in public life. This passage enters that discussion through truth, self.

Concepts in this quote

Truth
Truth is among philosophy’s oldest problems: what it is for a claim to be true, and how truth relates to belief, language, and power.
Self
Philosophy quotes about self explore identity, responsibility, and the examined life—from Socrates’ unexamined life to modern phenomenology and existential authenticity.

How to cite this quotation

APA: Augustine of Hippo. (n.d.). Do not go outside; return into yourself. Truth dwells in the inner man. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0233

MLA: Augustine of Hippo. “Do not go outside; return into yourself. Truth….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0233.

Chicago: Augustine of Hippo. “Do not go outside; return into yourself. Truth….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0233.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “Do not go outside; return into yourself. Truth…”?

The passage is attributed to Augustine of Hippo, De vera religione 39.72. The archive attributes this English wording to De vera religione 39.72 and files it under Patristic Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

What does Augustine of Hippo mean by truth?

Correspondence, coherence, pragmatist, and deflationary theories compete. Ethics and politics ask who gets to define truth in public life. This passage enters that discussion through truth, self.

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. 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.
  4. Give what you command, and command what you will.
  5. Take up and read; take up and read.

All quotations by Augustine of Hippo

Same theme

More on truth

  1. It is through wonder that people both now begin and first began to philosophize.
  2. A person's character is their destiny.
  3. What is opposed brings together; from what differs comes the finest harmony.
  4. Death is nothing to us: for what has been dissolved has no sensation, and what has no sensation is nothing to us.
  5. Pleasure is the beginning and end of the happy life — not the pleasures of profligates, but freedom from pain in the body and from disturbance in the soul.

Browse the truth theme