Q0484

Augustine of Hippo

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

Late have I loved you, beauty so ancient and so new.
Thinker Augustine of Hippo
School Patristic Philosophy
Source Confessions X.27
Theme Love
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Confessions X.27, 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 love, 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.). Late have I loved you, beauty so ancient and so new. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0484

MLA: Augustine of Hippo. “Late have I loved you, beauty so ancient….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0484.

Chicago: Augustine of Hippo. “Late have I loved you, beauty so ancient….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0484.

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 love

  1. Love is the desire for the perpetual possession of the good.
  2. A friend is another self.
  3. If you wish to be loved, love.
  4. Late have I loved you, beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you!
  5. Compassion is the basis of morality.

Browse the love theme