Primary source · Latin
The Confessions
Augustine of Hippo · c. AD 397–400
What this text is
The first interior autobiography: the pear tree, Monica's tears, the garden in Milan, the vision at Ostia — all addressed to God in the second person, restless until it rests in Him.
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Interlinear passages
Word-for-word glosses of the original; the complete public-domain translation is linked below.
Book I.1 — the restless heart
fecistithou hast madenosusadtowardtethyselfetandinquietumrestlessestiscorheartnostrumourdonecuntilrequiescatit restinintethee
Book X.27 — late have I loved thee
SeroLatetetheeamavi,I lovedpulchritudoO Beautytamsoantiquaancientetandtamsonova,newserolatetetheeamaviI loved
Public-domain translations
J. G. Pilkington (NPNF, 1886)
Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our heart is restless until it rests in Thee… Too late did I love Thee, O Fairness, so ancient and yet so new! Too late did I love Thee. For behold, Thou wert within, and I without, and there did I seek Thee.
E. B. Pusey (1838)
Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee… I entered into my inward self, Thou being my Guide.
Manuscript witnesses
Rome, Sessorianus 55 (Bibl. Naz. 2099)
6th c.A late-antique copy of the Confessions, within a century and a half of the author.
Patrologia Latina, vol. 32 (Migne)
1845Standard pre-critical text of the corpus.
Provenance
Hippo Regius, c. AD 397–400 — the first autobiography of the inner life
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- Augustine: Confessions (text and commentary, 3 vols.)James J. O'Donnell, 1992The standard critical commentary.
- Saint Augustine: Confessions (Oxford World's Classics)Henry Chadwick, 1991The standard faithful English.