“If physical objects please you, praise God for them, but turn back your love to their Creator, lest, in those things which please you, you displease Him. If souls please you, let them be loved in God; for in themselves they are mutable, but in Him firmly established — without Him they would simply cease to exist. Book 4: Chapter 12” LoveWorshipCreatorAttractionAugustineAugustine Of HippoIdolatory Book:Confessions Source: Confessions
“how shall we be beautiful? By loving the One who is always beautiful. The more love grows in you, the more beauty grows: for love itself is the beauty of the soul.” LoveBeautyAugustine Of Hippo Author:Augustine of Hippo
“My eyes sought him everywhere, but they did not see him; and I hated all places because he was not in them, because they could not say to me, “Look, he is coming,” And I marveled that other mortals went on living since he whom I had loved as if he would never die was now dead. And I marveled all the more that I, who had been a second self to him, could go on living when he was dead. Someone spoke rightly of his friend as being “his soul’s other half”--for I felt that my soul and his soul were but one soul in two bodies. Consequently, my life was now a horror to me because I did not want to live as a half self. But it may have been that I was afraid to die, lest he should then die wholly whom I had so greatly loved.” LoveFriendshipSoulmatesSt AugustinePlatonic Friendshp Book:The Confessions of St Augustine Source: The Confessions of St Augustine